Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 40. Now, in the first five verses of this
psalm, David speaks of the blessings that believers have in Christ. And he says there are too many
for us to count. And then in verse six, Christ
begins to speak. Christ, the reason that believers
have all these blessings to enjoy, begins to speak in verse 6. And
he says, sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears
hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
hast thou not required. All the sacrifices that were
required by the Old Testament law, and there were many, many,
many of them, none of them ever satisfied God's justice or His
holiness. Because it's not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats could take away the sin of men.
So God had to provide the sacrifice that would satisfy his holiness,
that would satisfy his justice. And the Messiah, when he comes,
is not going to be required to offer those typical animal sacrifices
as a sacrifice for sin. He's coming to offer himself
as a sacrifice for sin. He's coming as the Lamb of God.
And all those typical animal sacrifices ceased when the Messiah
came, when sin was put away. Now the law, as long as it was
in force, and even the law today, is compulsion. That's what the
law is. It's compulsion upon men. The law forces rules and regulations
upon men. And in the Old Testament, under
that Mosaic and Levitical law, men chafed under the burden of
that law. Just like people today. Human
nature is the same today as it was then. We chafe under the
law. At work today, I got in my mail
an envelope and I opened it up and thought, what's this? Another
tax that we have to pay. I can't tell you the hundreds
and hundreds of thousands of dollars we pay in taxes out there
at work every year. Chafe under that. It's compulsion. And we have to pay that. Or somebody's
going to jail. So we're going to pay it. Men
chafe under the law. Well, Christ came as a man. Made
under the law. And He did not chafe under the
requirements of the law. He didn't chafe under the burden
of the law. It didn't prove too much for Him. He didn't chafe
under it. He loved it. He loved to fulfill
the law of His Father. He fulfilled it quickly and promptly. It wasn't like, OK, I'll get
to it sometime. Willingly, lovingly, He fulfilled
the law quickly. He loved the law. And to fulfill
the law, to fulfill the law of His Father so much, He refused
to go free from it. You see there in verse, let's
see, where am I at? Well, I lost my place. But he
refused to go free from that law. That's what this means here
in verse 6 when he says, my ears hast thou opened. He became a
willing, eternal bond slave to his father. And what that bond
slave is, you know this well, is a man sold into slavery for
debts or whatever reason. He becomes a servant, a slave
to a man. And before he works that debt
off, he realizes he loves his master. He doesn't want to go
free from his master. So they take him down to the
middle of the town or wherever, and they use an awl and drilled
a hole in his ear and hung a ring in it. And that was the sign
to everyone, this man is a bond slave to someone because he loves
his master. He won't go free. Christ, He
is the bond slave of His Father. He loved to fulfill the will
of His Father so much, He refused to go free from it. And as His
Father's bond slave, He did everything that we hate to do by nature.
How we hate to be under that law, He did everything perfectly
that we hate to do. He did everything, secondly,
that we cannot do by nature. And thirdly, He did everything
that God required, absolutely everything, and freely imputed
it to his people. As Spurgeon said about this verse,
there's something we can learn from this verse. That God values
obedience of the heart more than he values the outward ceremonies
of religion. Our freedom from sin doesn't
come as a result of us going through some elaborate ritualistic
ceremony of some sort. or quitting doing something that
we love to do, or starting to do something that we don't like
to do, whatever, our freedom from sin comes to us as the effect
of Christ's obedience, as the willing bond slave. It's his
obedience to the Father that sets his people free from sin,
and he loved to do it. But now he had to come into this
earth to do it. So he says in verse 7, because
the Father had no pleasure in all those sacrifices of animals,
Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written
of me." And he says, Lo. Now pay attention. Get ready to hear something amazing.
Lo. You know, back up here in verse
5, David said, Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works
which thou hast done. Now, Lo. Christ is getting ready
to name the greatest of God's works. He's getting ready to
name the work that every other wonderful work of God hangs off
of. The incarnation of Christ. The incarnation of God's Son
to be the Savior of His people. He says, Lo, I come. Now, sacrifice for sin must be
made. The Father didn't send an angel,
did He? He said, Lo, I come. The job's going to be done. And
He says, I come. I come freely. I'm not coming
because I'm forced to. I'm not coming because I'm forced
to appear. I come freely. And I come right on time, at
the exact moment specified by the Father. Now, this is a blessing. Get a hold of it. This is our
Savior. This will give us an indication of how great our Savior
is. When we say, I'm coming, I'm
going somewhere, what we mean is that we are going to change
our location. From one place to another. That's
what we mean, right? Tomorrow, I'm going to go down
to Janet's mom and dad's house. We're going to spend the weekend
down there. She's already there. And I talked to her today. I
said, well, I'm coming tomorrow. And what that means is I'm going
to take a road trip and change my location from here to there. That's what that means. When
God's son says, Lo, I come. He's not talking about changing
his location. Not at all. God's omnipresent,
right? He's already here. He's already
there. He's everywhere at once. So he
can't be talking about changing his location. Tell you what he's
talking about. When the sun says, Lo, I come,
he's talking about assuming another nature. He's not talking about
he's talking about taking a body, not taking a trip, but taking
a body. When he says, I come, he means
he's uniting humanity to his deity and coming as a man to
be the sacrifice for his people. Now, that's amazing. I mean,
that is just utterly amazing. I still remember, I don't know
how many years ago it was, but I remember Cecil Roach preaching
a whole message on how astounding the incarnation of Christ was. Now, that's amazing. But it's
no new thing. It's no new plan. It's not something
just brand new revealed, you know, in Scripture. God foretold
it many times in the Old Testament Scripture. Christ says, Lo, I
come in the volume of the book it's written in me. All the Old
Testament Scriptures tell us Christ is coming. They all are
written about Christ. That's what we're talking about
Sunday morning, Wayne. This Old Testament's not a history book.
It's not a What did you say it was, a list of military facts
and figures? That's not what it is. All of
those scriptures speak of Christ. In Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus,
our Lord came up on those disciples, and he began at Moses, the law,
and all the prophets, and expounded unto them in the scriptures.
Well, the only scriptures that existed was the Old Testament.
In all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And later
on that day, he told his disciples that all the law of Moses, all
the prophets, and all the Psalms, that's the whole Old Testament,
isn't it? The law, the prophets, and the Psalms were all written
concerning me. The whole volume of the Old Testament
scripture is written concerning Christ. And he came to fulfill
all those scriptures, both in his life and in his death. Now, we know in his life, he
had to fulfill all the scriptures. He had to fulfill all the law
because that's our righteousness. His righteousness is our righteousness.
His obedience is our obedience. So he fulfilled all those things
in his life, but he fulfilled them in his death too. Paul,
when he was preaching in Acts 13, says that when they had fulfilled
all that was written of him, it wasn't until they fulfilled
everything that was written of him in the Old Testament scriptures,
Then they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. It wasn't until he had completely
fulfilled all those Old Testament scriptures, and he says, now
this has been told to you in all the Old Testament, the volume
of the book, I'm coming. Well, what's his purpose in coming?
What is the purpose in the Son of God coming, assuming the nature
of a man and coming to earth? Well, it's to do the will of
God as a man. A man must obey God's will, his law. And he says
in verse 9, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law
is within my heart. Now Christ not only did the Father's
will, he delighted to do his Father's will. Now men are forced
to live under the burden of the law. We're forced to at least
make an attempt at obedience to the law out of fear. That's
why we keep the law is out of fear. And that's the only reason.
You know, I'm always in a hurry. I don't care what I'm doing.
I never do anything slow. And the only reason I don't go
200 miles an hour out there on this road is fear. Fear of getting
a ticket and thrown in jail. It's fear. Christ did not keep
the law because of fear. It wasn't because he was forced
to. He did it because he delighted to do it. Both inwardly and outwardly,
he delighted to do it. It's not like the little boy
Henry told us about in an illustration. His mother was punishing. Remember,
he's sitting in the corner. That's where he was punished.
And he said, I'm sitting on the outside, but I'm standing in
the inside. Christ was obedient. He delighted
on the outside and on the inside. This was his delight. Now, we
read in Scripture, that our Lord was described as a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. And yet that man of sorrow still
had delight. He found delight in doing the
will of his father. That was what his delight was.
But what was the will of the father for the son? Well, the
saving all the people that the father gave him in the covenant
of grace. That's the father's will in sending his son, assuming
a nature of a man. This is the will of the Father
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
leave nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I'll raise him up at the last day. That's the Father's
will. But now that obedience came at great expense. Now it
was his delight. But it came at great personal
expense to our Savior. Our Lord delighted to do the
will of the Father. Even when it meant going to the
cross, even when it was time, that moment in time to go to
the cross, He was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross, even the shame and the humiliation of the cross. It
was His delight, even at that moment, to obey His Father's
will. When it came time for him to
be made sin, to suffer the penalty of sin for his people, he delighted
to do the will of his father. When it came time for him to
lay down his life as a substitute for his people, that was his
delight because it was the father's will. You remember in the garden,
what did he pray? He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. And in Hebrews, we read who for
the joy, the delight that was set before him, he endured the
cross, despising the shame. Obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. And that can only come from an
inward, holy love for the father. That's what he says here. Thy
law is within my heart. The law was written in his heart
and the law was loved in the heart of our Savior. And that's
written to show us the inward perfection of Christ. Not just
that he outwardly never committed sin. Inwardly, there was never
a thought, a motive of anything unpure, perfectly holy. Now, no man, no human being,
no son of Adam, can enter into the presence of God accepted
without that exact same heart. It has to be the exact same heart.
Salvation is a heart work. Now, we're not born with that
heart. We're born with a heart that's the opposite of that,
that hates God, that hates His law, that hates anything holy,
that loves everything sinful. So we've got to be given a new
heart that loves God and loves God's law. The heart we've got
to be given is the heart of Christ. Look at Jeremiah 31. We've got
to be given a new heart, the heart just like the heart of
our Lord. We've got to be made like him
in every way. In Jeremiah 31, verse 33. But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts. Isn't that just what Christ said
here? I delight to do thy will, O God, thy law is within my heart."
Here God says, I'm going to put my law in the inward parts of
my people. I'm going to write it in their
hearts and I'll be their God and they should be my people.
Sounds to me like those people are accepted, doesn't he? He
said, I'll be their God, they'll be my people. They're accepted
because God gave them a new heart that can be accepted in his presence.
And those people, God said, I'm going to write it. in their hearts. Now, if God wrote it in your
heart, it's there. If God wrote it in your heart,
you know the truth. You know it. You know it and
you love it. Now, you might not be able to
articulate all the truth, but when you hear it from God's Word,
you know it. You say, that's it. That's it. Why do you say
that? Because God wrote it in your
heart. Look at verse 34. That's what he says here. And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall all know
me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the
Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more. Now that's our delight. God's
written it in our hearts just like it was in the heart of Christ. But that's not our experience
in this flesh, is it? It's our desire. But it's not
our experience. In this flesh, we will never
be like Christ. We will never do the will of
the Father. Not perfectly, we won't. But
where do we find our delight? In doing the will of the Father.
Even though we don't do it perfectly, that's where we find our delight.
In doing the will of the Father. In worshiping Him and following
Him. Being made like Christ. Now, verse 9. Remember the voice of God that
we read about when we opened the service and whatever psalm
that was? Here's the voice of the preacher.
He says, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, thou knowest. Now, our
Lord holds many offices, doesn't he? He's the mediator, the only
mediator between God and men. He's king. King of kings and
Lord of lords. He's the priest that we studied
about in our study of the tabernacle. He's the priest who satisfied
God by offering that sacrifice for men to God. And he's the
prophet. The prophet is the one who reveals
God to men. He speaks to men for God. He's
the preacher. That's what our Lord. He's the
preacher. And our Lord, his whole life was a sermon, wasn't it? His whole life was a sermon that
revealed his father. His life was a sermon that revealed
what true holiness really is, what true righteousness is, what
grace is. His life revealed what mercy
and truth is. Your man calls Spurgeon the prince
of preachers. He's not. Christ is the prince
of preachers. He calls himself the preacher.
What's the message of the gospel? It's Christ. That's the message.
He is our message. Well, who better to preach that
message than Christ himself? He came as a preacher. Spurgeon
called Christ the master of itinerant preachers. He went everywhere
preaching to everyone. Tirelessly preaching. He preached
to the poor and the rich. He preached to the Pharisee and
the publican. He preached to the heathen as
well as the religious. And he told them all the same
thing. He never held anything that was profitable back from
anyone. He always told them exactly what
they needed to hear, the whole counsel of God. And he did it
in plain, simple speech that even the most uneducated person
could understand. Everybody understood exactly
what he was saying. Everybody may not have believed
it, but everybody understood precisely what he was saying.
And they said, after they heard him, never man spake like this
man. He did not speak like the scribes and the Pharisees. This
man speaks with power. And they said, those disciples,
he told them all the things in the Scriptures concerning himself.
They said, our hearts burned within us when he opened us the
Scriptures. The Scriptures aren't open to
you until you see Christ in it, until Christ is preached from
it. And he says he preached to the great congregations. Now
undoubtedly, multitudes heard our Lord preach. I mean, He went
everywhere to preach. Multitudes followed Him and heard Him preach.
But primarily, what He's referring to here is His elect. Those are the people who have
been given ears to hear. And those people who He's given
ears to hear, He preaches to them. You don't have to depend
on a man to do it. God's going to speak to your heart. Those
who have ears to hear, they'll hear Him preach. These are the
ones who have been taught of God. And he calls this congregation
great. Now they're great, obviously,
because of the number of them. There's a number no man can number.
This is the people that our Lord saved through his life and through
his death, through his sacrifice. He saved a number that no man
can number. This is the great congregation.
He saved them and he preached to them. But this congregation
is also great, one of the writers said, because every one of them
is a great sinner. all great sinners, and every
one of them is thankful that this one who said, Lo, I come,
is able to save to the uttermost all that great congregation of
great sinners. And our Lord says he came and
preached to them. Now in verse 10, and this is
where I wanted to get to tonight, this we see the subject of our
Lord's preaching. There are five truths of God
that Christ reveals, that Christ the preacher reveals. Now, if
Christ preached these truths, isn't it obvious that we ought
to preach the same truths? We have to preach these same
truths if we're going to preach Christ. We have to, because each
of these five truths can only be seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we preach Christ, we must
preach these five truths the same way he did. In the first
one, in verse 10, he says, I have not hid thy righteousness within
my heart. Now, we just read that the law
of God was in his heart and his heart was perfectly righteous. His inward man, his inward being
was perfectly righteous. But he didn't hide that. He declared
it. He didn't keep it for himself.
He declared it. He preached it to his people.
Look in Deuteronomy, chapter six. I'll show you why this is
so important, that he didn't hide this within his heart. In
Deuteronomy 6, verse 24. And the Lord commanded us to
do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good
always. The Lord wasn't given to us to
make us hurt or be paid. He was given to us for our good
always, that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day.
And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these
commandments before the Lord our God." Well, too late. It's too late. Every one of us
in here tonight, just since this service started, has sinned enough
to send us to hell for ten eternities. It's too late. Well, what are
we going to do? We can't go back. It's too late.
Christ the Preacher came and he didn't hide thy righteousness
within his heart. Now, Christ the Preacher is not
telling men A bunch of things that they can do to make themselves
holy. He's not coming to give us a
pep talk. That's what a lot of preaching
is. It's just a pep talk. I mean, not here. I'm talking
about in false religion. What they do is they give people
a pep talk to try to make them make a better effort at being
more righteous. That's not what Christ does.
Christ is not coming selling a detergent. Preachers on TV,
they're always selling something. Christ is not selling a detergent
that will make your filthy rags of righteousness less offensive. Christ came declaring thy righteousness. He didn't come declaring our
righteousnesses. He came declaring thy righteousness,
the righteousness of God that was produced by our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
righteousness. He's righteousness personified.
He is the righteousness, the only righteousness, that God
will accept. Christ is the righteousness that
God imputes to everyone who believes. Not to everyone who does good
and makes themselves better. This is the righteousness that
God imputes to everyone that believes. Look at Romans chapter
3. This is the righteousness that
Christ declared, which is himself. In verse 19 of Romans 3, Now
we know that what things whoever the law saith, that saith to
them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world may become guilty before God. We just saw that
back in Deuteronomy 6, too late for us. So 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, after
Christ has The righteousness of God without the law, or without
our obedience to the law, is manifested, being witnessed by
the law and the prophets, being witnessed in all the Old Testament
scriptures. 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, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through
the forbearance of God. See, this is the righteousness
that's imputed through faith. That's how man is made righteous,
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over across the
page in Romans 4, verse 20, talking about Abraham. Abraham staggered
God's promise of God through unbelief. but he was strong in
faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what
God had promised he was able also to perform, and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it should be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Now that's obvious. Scripture
makes it obvious. Righteousness comes through faith. Just believe
in God. Well now, how shall they believe
in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? So God sent his Son to preach
thy righteousness. He sent Christ the righteous
one to preach righteousness. And look back at Psalm 71. That's
the righteousness, that's the message of Christ, and that's
the message of His servants. Psalm 71, verse 15. My mouth shall show forth thy
righteousness, not my righteousness, thy righteousness and thy salvation
all the day. For I know not the numbers thereof.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine only." That was the message
of Christ and that's the message of his preachers throughout the
ages. I will declare thy righteousness.
Second, Christ the preacher says in verse 10, I have declared
thy faithfulness. Now again, Christ the preacher
is not giving a pep talk to inspire people to be more faithful. We
ought to be. I mean, we just ought to be more
faithful, but we're not. Here's the message. Great is
thy faithfulness, even when I'm not. He's faithful, even when
I'm not. Our salvation and our security,
our eternal security is not dependent upon the strength of our faith
or how faithful of a servant we've been. Our security is totally
found in his faithfulness, in the character of God. Now, Christ
saves sinners. I mean, bona fide sinners. And if Christ saved you, if you're
a sinner and Christ saved you, he will be faithful to bring
you to glory. You can just bank on it. You
can't do something bad enough. Not that you want to, but this
is the believer's fear, because we know what we are by nature. You can't do something bad enough
to make Christ take it back. Wish I hadn't done that. And
he'll pull back the covering of his blood from you. Won't
do it. He's faithful. For the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. He's faithful. Look
at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 8. In verse 7 Paul says, Now you
come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. By whom ye were called under
the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, you know,
Paul gives here in the beginning of this letter to the Corinthians,
he gives them some comfort. Now, God's faithful. He's going
to establish you to the end. And then Paul goes into a long
list of things that they've done wrong. Things that they've done
wrong, they did with the wrong attitude and the wrong spirit.
But don't fear. God's faithful. He's faithful. He will confirm you to the end. Look at 2 Thessalonians 3. Well,
God's faithful. Well, now, does that mean when
trials come our way and these horrible days of darkness come
our way, does that mean God forgot you? Does that mean He's not
faithful? Look at 2 Thessalonians 3. Finally,
brethren, pray for it. that the word of the Lord may
have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that
we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. For all men have
not faith." Now Paul's going through trial here, and the people
he's writing, they're going through trials. So he says in verse 3,
now here we pray we'll be delivered from these unreasonable, wicked
men. But regardless of our situation, the Lord is faithful. who shall
establish you and keep you from evil, from the evil one. He's
faithful. Even in times of trial, he's
faithful. God will always be faithful to himself. He'll be
faithful to his character, his character of holiness and grace
and mercy and righteousness. God will be faithful to his covenant. God will be faithful to his promises. God always keeps his word. God will be faithful to his son. He's going to give his son everyone
that he purchased. And God will be faithful to his
people. Look back at 1 Samuel chapter
2. In the volume of the book, it's written of me. In the volume
of the book, it's written of his faithfulness. 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 35. And I will raise me up a faithful
priest. that shall do according to that
which is in mine heart and in my mind, and I will build him
a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever."
Well, that can be speaking of no one but our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the faithful priest. That's the Christ that we believe. Then hold fast the profession
of your faith without wavering, for he's faithful that Don't
hold fast your profession because you're faithful, for I'm faithful.
Hold fast your profession of faith without wavering, for He's
faithful, that promised. I have declared thy faithfulness.
Then back in our text, verse 10, thirdly, he says, I have
declared thy salvation. He's not saying to men things
that you can do to save yourself or things that you can do to
make yourself more savable. It's not what he's saying. He
says, I have declared thy salvation. I have declared the way, the
person through which God has always intended to save his people
from their sins. In Hebrews 2, I'm about there. Just let me read this to you.
Hebrews 2, verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord?" That's who first spoke of this. It first began
to be spoken by the Lord, our preacher, and then was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him. Christ came declaring, Thy salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. I did some reading on this. over
the past couple of days, and I can find nothing better than
what you already know. It's Persians famous five-point
message. Salvation is of the Lord in its
origination. Christ, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Salvation is of the Lord, secondly,
in its execution. It pleased the Lord to prison.
Third, salvation is of the Lord in its application. When were
you saved? What did Paul say in Galatians
1? When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb. That's when, because salvation
is of the Lord in its application. For salvation is of the Lord
in its sustaining power. Peter said we're kept by the
power of God through faith. And look at Philippians chapter
3. Fifthly, salvation is of the Lord in its ultimate glory. In Philippians 3, verse 20, for our conversation,
our citizenship, is in heaven, from whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according
to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself. Salvation is of the Lord in its
ultimate glory. He'll accomplish it, just like
he accomplished every step from beginning to end. I have declared
thy salvation. Fourth, he says, the preacher
says, I have not concealed thy lovingkindness. Now again, he's
not preaching about our love, our fickle, cold love for God. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness. God's love for his people. Now,
we do love him, don't we? Andrew spoke about that Sunday
morning. It's weak. It's not worth mentioning, but
we do love him. We love the God of predestination. We love the God of election.
We love the God of substitution. We love the God who calls and
keeps his people. We do love him. As fickle and
cold as it is, we do love him. But why? Because He first loved
us. See, we declare Thy lovingkindness. He loved His people from all
of eternity. If God loves you, there's never
been a moment that He hated you. Not one moment. He's loved His
people from all of eternity. He said it. I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. And the proof that God loves
his people is lo, I come. He sent his son into this world
as a man. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. Everybody ought to love God.
That's impossible to understand how somebody doesn't love him.
Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Now we declare thy lovingkindness. But you can't declare that to
everybody in the whole wide world. You cannot say from scripture,
from God's word, that God loves everyone because the Bible speaks
of wrath. The Bible speaks of men and women
in hell. Well, God doesn't love those
people. So you can't say God loves everyone when the Bible
speaks of wrath. It always speaks of God's wrath
in these terms against sin and unbelief. That's where God's
wrath is found. And when the Bible speaks of
God's love, it's not to everyone. He speaks of his love in Christ. That's where God's love is found.
It's in Christ. Look at John 17. In our Lord's
great high priestly prayer. He says here in John 17. Verse 23, this is the union of
Christ and his people, I in them and thou in me. that they may
be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
Now, if the Father loves you, He loves you with the exact same
love that He loves His Son with. You can only say that's possible
in Christ because we have union with Christ. God can only love
me that way in Christ. When he sees me, he sees the
blood of the Lamb. He sees me as worthy and not
as I am. He came to declare thy lovingkindness. And fifth, Christ the preacher
says, I have not concealed thy truth from the great congregation.
Now again, this great congregation is believers. It's God's elect.
Those are the people who know the truth because it's been revealed
to them. Christ must reveal the truth
to us or we'll never know it. Look in John chapter 18, if you're
still there, just over a page, verse 37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born. This
is the reason, he said, lo, I come. To this end was I born. And for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness. He'd
be a preacher. He'd bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth,
heareth my voice. That's why I said a minute ago,
every believer, every child of God knows the truth. May not be able to articulate
it, but when you hear it, you say, That's it. When you hear
from God's word, you say, that's it. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice and believes and knows the truth. Well, Pilate
said unto him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews and said unto them, I find in
him no fault at all. Why did Pilate say that? It wasn't
revealed to him. You'd be reading the name Frank
there. If it wasn't for God's grace. Now that's so. You would.
Because the truth must be revealed. And it simply was not revealed
to Pilate. And a better question to ask
would have been this. Who is truth? Truth is not so
much a what. It's not a list of doctrines
that Calvinists love to pound, you know. Truth is a person. Thy truth, God's truth, is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth of God. the truth and the life. And you
cannot know God apart from Christ. But now if you know him, you
know the Father. He said to all his disciples, he who has seen
me has seen the Father. Now you can see things about
God, true things about God in places other than Christ, but
not the truth of God. You can see God's power and his
majesty in creation, can't you? That's pretty obvious, easy to
see. But that's not the truth of God. You can see God's wisdom
in creation and his wisdom in how he rules the providence of
his creation, but that's not the truth of God. You can see
God's holiness and righteousness in judging sin, but that's not
the truth of God. The truth of God is his whole
character. God's goodness. Mike, you read
it in the study. His goodness. I'll make my goodness
pass before you. His mercy. His grace, His love,
the true character of God is only seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I tell you, look to Christ. In every situation, look to Christ. Christ reveals the righteousness
of God. He reveals the faithfulness of
God. You look to Christ. In Him, you'll find the salvation
of God. Look to Christ. In Him is the
loving kindness of God. Look to Christ. He is the truth
of God. If you want to know the truth,
look to Christ. He'll set you free. The truth
will set you free. All right. The Lord bless you.