you. Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice and let me sing,
always, only for Thy King. Always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages for Thee. Take my silver and my gold. None of mine could I withhold. None of mine could I withhold. Take my love, my God, I implore,
and thy feet its treasures store. Take myself, and I will be ever,
only, all for thee. Ever, only, all for thee. And I turn to the book of Hebrews
for our scripture reading. While you're turning, just a
couple of announcements. Shelby told me that Skip had
a heart catheter yesterday, as did Kathy Ginter. And she said that Kathy's going
to have to have open heart surgery. Marvin is improving and he came
home yesterday from the hospital. So that's good news. And he,
uh, his speech and so forth is improving from the stroke he
had. So be in prayer for those folks. And for all our folks
that we remember each service, it would love to be with us,
but are hindered by the Lord's good providence, but be in prayer
for them. And at least they have the streaming
Frank. Good to have you with us tonight.
Always a joy, Frank. a longtime friend of this congregation. And we're always delighted to
see him again. Hebrews chapter two actually read the last two
verses of chapter one. But to which of the angels said
he at any time said on my right hand until I make the enemies
I footstool. Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompensive reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also
bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to
come, whereof we speak, but one in a certain place testified,
saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son
of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angel, thou crownest him with glory and honor, and
did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all
things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all
in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under
him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth,
and they who are sanctified, are all of one. for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, while
I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God has given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death, he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things,
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. Our merciful Father, as we read
this text, we stand amazed at your goodness towards sinners. You who needed nothing, who dwelt in perfect harmony
with the Son and the Spirit, for reasons known but to yourself, chose a people. And not just a few, but a number
that no man can number. chose those people in Christ. And Father, wonder of wonders,
you sent your son to take on human flesh to be made
like unto his brethren. Father, we are astounded at your
goodness toward undeserving sinners. May we hear As Frank comes and
stands in this place in a few moments, Father, may you give
him liberty to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And Father, give us hearts. Hearts to hear. Parts to soak
in. The hearing of the goodness of
God to sinners. And father, if you'll do that
for us, we'll leave this place greatly rejoicing in our blessed
savior. We ask all these things and for
in his name and for his namesake. Amen. All right, turning the hymn books
to four hundred and forty two. Four hundred forty two. Praise him. Jesus. Wonderful Lord, proclaim. Hail Him! Hail Him! Highest Archangel in glory, Strength
and honor give to His holy name. like a shepherd Jesus will guard
his children in his arms he carries them all day long praise him,
praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him, praise
him every joyful song praise him praise him Jesus our blessed
redeemer for our sins he suffered and bled and died he our hope
of eternal salvation hail him hail him Jesus the crucified
Sound His praises, Jesus, and pour our sorrows. Love unfounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! is coming. O'er the world victorious, power
and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. What's your favorite song? Oh, let's sing. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of
hosts. Lord God Almighty Early in the
morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy ? Merciful
and mighty ? ? God in three persons ? ? Blessed Trinity ? ? Holy,
holy, holy ? ? All the saints adore thee ? Casting down their
golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee. Which word and ardent evermore
shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Frank, we're delighted to have
you. I'll invite you as I do every man that comes to this
pulpit, come brag on Christ. Well, it is certainly my delight
to see you all again and be with you. I've looked forward to it. It is not an exaggeration to
say that you all are on my heart and mind daily. I pray for you
and pray that the Lord would be with you and bless you. If
you would, open your Bibles with me to Psalm 126. I've titled the message, It Seems
Too Good to Be True. One of my great fears for me
personally is becoming over-familiar and hardened, I guess is the
word, to God's grace. God's saving grace always just
seemed to us too good to be true. And I hope to be able to set
forth his grace and saving grace and mercy in such a way tonight
that it'll be as fresh and new to you tonight as it ever has
been. Now, most of the writers think
this psalm was written By the time that the Lord would set
Israel free from bondage in Babylon, it also seems that this psalm
was written many years before Israel even went into bondage
in Babylon. And long before his people even
went into bondage, the Lord gave this prophecy of how he would
deliver them from bondage and make them look to him again and
hope in him when they are in bondage. See, the Lord gave them
something long before they went into bondage to give them something
that they would need when he did bring them into bondage,
something to comfort their hearts and something to cause them to
look to Christ. Now, I know for sure that this psalm was a picture
of God's promise. In his time, he will come and
set all of his people free from the condemnation of their sin.
He'll set them free from the ruling power of the law. And I hope we'll find some blessing
and encouragement from our hearts from that tonight. Now verse
1, Psalm 126, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,
we were like them that dream. You know, to the Jews who had
been in captivity in Babylon, probably been there for some
time, they said when the Lord finally came and delivered us
from bondage and returned us to Israel, It seemed like a dream. We'd just given up hope on ever
being set free, ever going back to Jerusalem, and the Lord did
something so wonderful for us. It seemed too good to be true.
And the Lord delivering Israel from bondage to the different
places and different countries that ever did hold them captive,
that's always a picture of God's salvation of His people, spiritual
Israel. He saves His people. You know,
when God saves his people, this is an amazing act, to be saved. When God saves a sinner, first
of all, God saves that sinner from himself. We need to be saved
from God's wrath against our sin. He's angry with the wicked
every day. God's holy, he must punish sin.
We must be saved from God's wrath against our sin. And when God
saves a sinner, he also saves them from their sin. He saves
them from condemnation of their sin by suffering it for them.
He delivers them from the ruling power of sin. So sin does not
have dominion over them anymore. Their sin cannot stop them from
looking to Christ and believing Christ anymore. And someday the
Lord will deliver them from even the presence of sin itself. Now
you and I are so sinful. These bodies are so saturated
with sin, our nature so filled with sin that we don't know how
glorious of a thing this will be when the Lord delivers us
from even the presence of sin in our bodies. And if the Lord
ever does that for you and me, you know what we'll say? That's
too good to be true. It seems too good to be true.
Now, if we're going to understand why God's salvation of his people
seems too good to be true, it's not too good to be true, but
it does seem like it to the natural mind, we have to understand several
truths. First of all, we have to understand
some truths about God, who he is, and we have to understand
some truths about us. First, we have to consider some
truths about who we are. There is no way to say this as
black and as awful as it ought to be. You and I are sinful. I mean, it's not like that we
just commit some sins. We are sin. Our nature is sin. And our worst sin is not the
vile acts that people think of, you know, when they think of
sin and all the vile things that people do out in the world. Vile,
no doubt. And most people think of vile
sin as something vile somebody else does. We seldom think that
about ourselves, do we? But if I'm gonna be amazed at
God's grace and God's salvation from sin, I'm gonna have to see
that sin is what I am. It's what I am. You're gonna
have to see sin is what you are. Sin is not something that someone
else does. Sin is what I am. what I am. I mean, I'm not just talking
to a bunch of people that aren't here tonight. I mean, I'm starting
right here with me. Sin is what I am. Sin is what
you are. And there's no sin. You can't
think of any individual sin that we're not guilty of committing.
You can't think of one. Because James said, whosoever
shall keep the whole law yet offend in one point. Keep all
of God's law and offend in one point, God says you're guilty
of sin. And our Lord said to even think
about sin is to be guilty of it. So there's no doubt we've
all broken every point of God's law, haven't we? And we can never
say, well, at least I didn't do that. At least I'm not that
bad. I'm not as bad as that guy. I
mean, you know. Oh, yes, we are that bad. Yes, we are. And yes,
we have done that. We're guilty of breaking the
whole law of God. And worse yet, and this is something
that I try to tell especially our young people at home, but
all of us here now, I tell you who the worst sinners are. It's
not somebody on death row at the prison, as vile as that may
be. All the different sins that you
can think of and crimes someone committed to land themselves
in prison for an extended period of time. Tell you what the worst
sin is. Maybe I shouldn't say that, but
to my way of thinking, it's this. It's to refuse to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ when we hear him preached. That's the
worst. That's the worst. To hear the
gospel, to hear the counsel of God, to hear the Lord Jesus Christ
say, are you thirsty? Come to me and drink. And then
not go drink. Are you hungry? He said, come
to me, I'll give you the bread of life. And we don't go. We
say, no, thank you. I'll try to find some scraps
on my own. He says, are you weary? Come to me and rest. And we don't
do it. We say, no, thank you. I'll try
to work my way out of this mown self, you know. To not come to
Christ and fall at his feet, begging for mercy, begging for
forgiveness is to spit in the face of God Almighty. That's
what it is. You and I are just as guilty
as the people at the cross who cried crucifying. Away with him. Crucify him. Give us Brabus and
destroy Jesus. We're guilty of spitting in the
face of the Savior. We're guilty of mocking him.
We're guilty of lying on him. We're guilty of bearing false
witness against the Son of God himself. And here's how we bear
false witness against the Son of God. Say, I don't need him.
I'm good enough on my own. I can do good enough on my own
to please God. Let's bring false witness against
the Son of God. Now you think about how serious
this sin of unbelief is. Just think about that for a minute. If murdering another man makes
us guilty of being cast into hell, what would you imagine
that the Father says you and I deserve? for murdering His
only begotten Son." God sent His people Israel into
captivity and slavery in Babylon because of the sin of idolatry.
That's what always got Israel in trouble, wasn't it? The Lord
would bless them and keep blessing, and upon this, oh, God's so gracious,
God's so merciful, we're always going to follow Him. I mean,
just as fast as you can blink an eye, they're worshiping idols,
aren't they? And God warned them. Now, if you go after other gods
and after these idols, you're going to be sent away into bondage.
And they did it anyway. They did it anyway. And God sent
them to be slaves in Babylon, the people we would call today
ISIS. That's who they were slaves to.
And you know, Israel couldn't say, we don't deserve this. They could not say they didn't
deserve it. No, God warned them. And their lives were nothing
but misery. I mean, I just can't imagine
how miserable these people were. They had no hope of deliverance
because not only was the Babylonian Empire so powerful, but they
were there getting what they deserved from God. Oh, they must
be punished. Because if I know anything about
God, I know this, holy, holy, holy. I know that God is holy. God is just. God says he cannot
let the guilty go free. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He must, he must, because this
is his character of holiness and justice. He must punish every
sin with death. That's the God with whom we have
to do. Well, we've already established
that we're guilty, haven't we? We're guilty of every sin. We're
guilty of hating God. We're guilty of rejecting God's
son that he sent to save sinners. God sent his son to do good,
and we rejected him, set away with him. And we hear him preach
today, we refuse to believe on him. And we'll keep refusing
to believe on him unless God overpowers us and gives us a
new nature of faith. That's just a fact. We'll always
refuse to believe on Christ unless God does something for us. Not
only are we guilty, We're plumbed up because we're sinners who
refuse to go to the Savior of sinners, whose command to us
is come, is come. And we deserve God's wrath. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10. You know, there's just no denying
that we deserve for God to cast us into hell. And if he does
it, he does it because that's what we deserve. And there's
nobody in hell can ever say, I'm getting something I don't
deserve. Nobody. Hebrews 10, verse 26. For if we sin willfully after
that we've received the knowledge of the truth, if we turn away
from the gospel and believe on some other man-made idol, believe
in our own works, after we've received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall
destroy the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God and accounted the blood of the covenant wherein
he was sanctified an unholy thing and done despite unto the Spirit
of grace. For we know him that has said,
vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the
Lord, And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It's fearful
because we're guilty. We're guilty. If you look back
at Matthew chapter seven, you know, the human mind hears that
it's a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God.
And they think, well, I better get to work doing some good things
in order to even the balances and make this thing up. But you
know even our very best religious works, the very best works that
we've done that we think, now this will make God happy with
me. Even those works are works that deserve to be cast into
air. That's right. Look here at Matthew
7, verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many shall
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? In thy name have cast out devils?
In thy name done many wonderful works? And then while I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now these people, I'm sure they're
not lying. They had preached in the Lord's name. They had
cast out devils in the Lord's name. They'd done many wonderful
works in the Lord's name, and they had a pretty good record
of them. because these are the works that they thought would
commend them to God. And God called those works, works
of iniquity. Anything that we hope to come
before God accepted in other than the Lord Jesus Christ alone,
it's iniquity. Look at Revelation chapter six. There's no hope of any hiding
from God's wrath our sin, against His judgment. We can't hope to
escape. Revelation 6 verse 15, And the
kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man, hid themselves in dens, and in the rocks of the mountains,
and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us
from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
has come, and who shall be able to stand? None. Outside of Christ,
none. And hoping that the rocks will
fall on you and hide you will not hide us from the all-seeing
eye of God. So here's who we are. You and me, here's who we
are now. We're guilty, we're under the sentence of eternal
death, and there's nothing that we can do to escape it. That's
us, in a nutshell, that's us. All right, second, now we consider
something of who we are. We're going to see how God's
saving grace, it's too good to be true. We have to see something
about who we are, how undeserving we are. Second, we have to consider
something about who God is. Now, God is just the opposite
of everything that we are. God is holy. God will not accept
any sin in anyone into his presence. God cannot overlook our sin. Cannot do it. Believer, unbeliever
like he cannot overlook our sin. Far too often we make the mistake
of thinking God's like us. Rex and I were talking about
grandbabies back in the study and uh, I don't mind telling
you, as a father, I was a disciplinarian. I was strict. I mean, boy, this
is my way. We're going to do this my way,
you know? And that's the way I was with our girls. And if
I was young enough and had the strength enough and was young
and foolish enough, I'd do it again. But I got a grandbaby
now. And you know, I just don't see
that many faults in that child. You know, he does, you know,
I can overlook that. And so then he says, you wouldn't,
you would not have let that go when I was his age for nothing.
I said, well, you know, that's true. That's your job now. You
know, I just, I just don't see it. God's not like us. This thing about God that says
great grandfather in the sky is the most offensive thing that's
ever been told. He's just comparing God to a
man. Almighty God will not accept the best that we can do. And
let me ask you, why should he have to? Why should he have to? He's holy. God demands absolute
perfection, and it's only right that he would. Why should the
holy God be forced to accept our unholy presence in his holy
presence? Why should God be forced to accept
our unholy nature into the presence of His holy nature. He shouldn't. He shouldn't. God is holy, and
God is also just. Now this is the very nature of
God. This is who He is because of His nature. He must punish
every sin with eternal death. He said He will by no means clear
the guilty, and when God damns somebody, He's gonna be just
in doing it. It's gonna be just and right.
God will judge everyone in exact, perfect righteousness, giving
them exactly what they deserve, no more and no less. And here's
the thing that ought to grip the heart of a sinner who refuses
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know the judge
will be the one we refuse to believe? We've insulted him,
insulted his character by refusing to believe on him. He said, the
father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
son, unto the one that we've sinned against. Now that's sobering,
isn't it? Sobering to think about. I know
God is holy. God is just. God is righteous. But thank God he's also merciful.
Mercy is the character of God, the same way holiness and justice
is. God must be merciful, just like
he must be just, because that's his character. You know, I've
heard religious hardliners say this, and I understand what they're
trying to say. They try to explain God's sovereignty
and salvation, God needing no man. They try to explain it this
way. They say, well, God could have
sent everybody to hell, Or He could have saved everyone through
the obedience in the blood of His Son. Or He could save some. He could send everybody to hell,
He could send everybody to heaven, or He could save some. Now God
certainly could have saved everybody, every son of Adam. He could have
done that. By His mercy and grace through the blood of His Son,
He could have saved every son of Adam. But God could not, could
not, damn every son of Adam. He couldn't do it because his
character is to be merciful. Mercy is part of God's character,
so God is going to show mercy to someone. Oh, the best news
a sinner ever heard is what God told Moses, I'll have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I'm glad it's up to God because
left up to me, I'd never come seek it. God said, I will be
merciful to whom I will be merciful. All right, now here's the question
of questions. How can God, holy and just, how
can God show mercy to sinners and still be holy and still be
just? How can God punish sin and not
condemn the sinner to hell? Now that's the question of questions.
You find out the answer to that and you found out the answer
to the gospel. Well, here's the third thing. If we're going to
see how God's salvation, by His mercy and by His grace, would
seem too good to be true, we have to consider how and why
God saves sinners. Before time began, before human
time began, before God ever spoke any of creation into existence,
do you know what the Father did? He elected a people unto salvation,
even though He knew they would be dead in sin. Even though He
knew they would do nothing but sin against Him, God elected
a people. He chose a people that He would
save out of Adam's fallen race. They were sinful people. He didn't
choose them because they were less sinful than somebody else,
no. They're just as sinful as everybody else. They're just
as sinful as anybody who's in hell right now. By their actions,
by their nature, they deserve to be sent to hell because of
their sin, But the father chose to save them anyway. And see,
God did that because God must be merciful. Mercy's his character. And the way that God shows mercy
to sinners is injustice. God sent his only begotten son. the son of his love, who, before
God created anything, was with his father and daily was the
delight of his father. The father sent his son into
this world to humiliate himself and become a man, to clothe himself
in human flesh, to live a life made under his own law. The Prince
of Glory became a servant. He humbled himself to become
a servant And after 33 and a half years, roughly, of however long
he lived, that's about how long we think his earthly ministry
was, of perfection. However long he lived, I mean,
it was a life of absolute perfection. The son agreed to humble himself
further and to be made sin for his people. He willingly went
to the cross to die the death His elect deserve, to satisfy
God's justice so that it would be right for the Father to be
merciful to His people. Look at Galatians chapter 3.
You know, we're born under the curse of sin. What we deserve
is the curse of sin because of our actions. But look what the
Savior did. Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it's written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now that's what Christ
did. He took the curse of his people. He bore it in his own
body on the tree that, here's why he did that. The blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Not by our works, but through faith in Christ. The father made
his son bear the curse of sin for his people. He made him die. I mean, here's another thing
the human mind can never understand. How is it that the one whose
name is life died? I have no idea. I can't explain
how that could possibly happen, but it did. The body of the Lord
Jesus laying in a rich man's tomb, dead. for three days. His eyes were clothed in death.
He wasn't breathing. His heart wasn't beating. Where
was he? I don't know. Everywhere, that's
where he was. And then after three days, he
opened his eyes in life. He opened his eyes in life. He put the curse of sin away
for his people forever. And he put it away from his people
so far that it can never touch them again. So that when the
Apostle John got that glimpse of glory, you know what he told
us? There shall be no more curse.
This book opens, Genesis chapter three, with the curse of sin. All the way over, I believe it's
in Revelation chapter 22, John says, and there should be no
more curse. In these pages, is an amazing,
amazing story. How that the Lord Jesus Christ
put away the curse of sin from his people by suffering it for
them. He made it right. He made it
right for God to show mercy to sinners. Look at 2 Corinthians
5. Everybody here could quote it.
I quote it. I think in every message I preach, probably, whether
I mean to or not, but let's read this. Let's not get so familiar
now. Let's read this and look at it.
Christ delivered His people from sin by bearing their sin for
them. Let's see if that's what Scripture
says. Verse 21, for He, God the Father, have made Him, God the
Son, He made Him sin for us. He didn't make Him a sinner,
He made Him sin, a mass of the sin of all of His people all
at one time. Him who knew no sin, that we,
sinners, unrighteous sinners, might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Christ took the sin of His people
away from them and He made it His. It became His sin. He felt every effect of sin with
the exception of commission. He didn't commit any sin. He felt the guilt of sin. That's
why he said, I cannot look up. He felt the separation of sin
between sin and the sinner. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He suffered everything that sin
deserves so that he could make his people the righteousness
of God in him. He traded his people. His righteousness
for their sin. A man told me one time, that's
bad business. To trade loss for gain? That's
bad business, but it's good salvation. It's good salvation, isn't it?
Christ suffered and died for the sin of his people so that
God's elect go free in justice. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and died. He shed his blood for your sin.
The same justice that demanded the son die at Calvary demands
you have eternal life. It demands that you be kept.
It demands that you be glorified. It demands that one day you awake
in glory and open your eyes into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ
and you realize you've awoken in his likeness. I don't know about you, But anymore, very, very often,
I think, I can't do it anymore. I can't take another step. I
can't go through this world anymore. I can't live another moment with
this sinful, rotten, I can't do it. And I think, I just, There
can't be any hope for somebody like there just can't be. And then to think that if Christ
died for me, the justice of God demands my salvation, demands
my eternal life, demands that I be kept until the end. Such peace, just takes all the
burden off, doesn't it? And when Christ suffered and
died, He died for the sin of his people. How good of a job
did he do at it? Perfect. John said the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from what? All sin. All of it. It's gone. And even
as a savior, suffered and died in agony, of both body and soul. No man's visage was marred more
than him. He suffered more physically than any other man. And you and
I will never understand the depths of the suffering of his soul.
He made his soul an offering for sin. The depths of his agony
are absolutely unimaginable. And while he was in the depths
of those depths, the height of his suffering, you know what
he said? Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they're doing. Now, whoever it is that the Savior
prayed for at that moment, their sin's forgiven. You know why? The blood he was shedding in
that sacrifice at that very moment. Their sin is forgiven. And when you consider that Christ
suffered like that, he suffered without a cause, He suffered for those people
who were making Him suffer, suffered for the people who were natural
born enemies to Him, suffering for people who would never believe
on Him unless He moves and causes them to be born again with a
new heart and a new nature that He would save those people. Salvation
for those people seems too good to be true. It seems to the natural
mind too good to be true that the Son of God could come into
flesh and actually be made flesh. to be as much God as if he were
not man, and as much man as if he were not God. 100% God and 100% man. The math of that don't add up.
It's heavenly arithmetic, only faith can believe. God became
a man for this purpose, to save his people from their sin, by
suffering and dying for that sin in their place. Now that's
just too good to be true. It's what the natural man says.
Look at Romans chapter 5. It seems too good to be true
that the Son of God could love a sinner like me. But you know
it's true. It's true. And I wouldn't say
it unless I found it in this book. Romans 5, verse 8. But
God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, he loved his people. And
the proof of it, he sent his son to die for him. It seems
too good to be true that the suffering and the death of one
man could deliver a number no man can number from their sin, completely save them from condemnation
of their sin. It's too good to be true that
the sacrifice of one man could do that. Doesn't seem too good
to be true, but it's true. Look at Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore now, right
now, at this present time, no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. It seems too good to be true,
but it's true. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews 9 verse 11. It seems
too good to be true that one man's death on the cross could
redeem his people from all of their sin. But it's true. Hebrews 9 verse 11, but Christ
being come in a high priest of good things to come by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is
to say, not at this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place. having obtained eternal redemption
for us. The sacrifice of one man obtained
eternal redemption for all of his people. Now someone can hear
the gospel, maybe hasn't heard it that much before or really
haven't been listening, now suddenly they're listening, they hear
something, and they say, you mean to tell me that the Son
of God would come to earth as a man to be my representative? To come be my... Preacher, do
you know who I am? Do you know what I do? You know,
I think that the Son of God would come to be a man, to be my representative? He'd take my place? To be my
substitute? I don't know, that seems too
good to be true. You mean to tell me that the Holy Son of
God died bearing my sin so that a guilty sinner like me can go
scot-free because he paid the debt for me? You mean to tell
me that God would save a sinner like me by His grace without
any works? That I have to do something to
make it effectual? That I have to do something to earn this?
That's too good to be true. I've got to be dreaming. Well,
it would be too good to be true. And as God said so in his word.
And I tell you this, if the Lord ever reveals his son to you and
in you, you're going to trust him and you will be absolutely,
utterly amazed. It seems too good to be true. But by God's grace, I believe
that. I believe him. Look back in our text, Psalm
126. Oh, and you'll rejoice. Oh, if
He reveals Christ to you, you're going to rejoice. Verse 2 says,
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue was
singing. Then said they among the heathen,
The Lord hath done great things for them. And God's people tell
the heathen, Boy, you think God's done great things for us? The
Lord hath done great things for us. The have hath been told.
We're of, we're glad. We're of, we're glad. I didn't
deserve it, but God did it anyway. I deserve to be sent to hell,
but God saved me anyway. And you know, someone told me
recently, she said, you smile when you preach. And I said,
yeah, I do, because this is such good news. It's such good news. It makes me happy. I mean, it
makes me happy. There's some times I've seen
in my study and I'm all alone and people would look at me and
think I'd done lost my mind. I started laughing out loud.
I mean, I just laughed. God's grace is just new and amazing
every day, isn't it? God saves his people by his mercy
and his grace. And He does it in such a way
to keep us looking to Christ. We don't just look to Christ
once. God will do things in such a way. He'll order the events
of our lives in such a way to keep us dependent on the Lord,
to keep us crying to Him for mercy, to keep crying to Him,
Lord, deliver me, to keep depending upon Him. See verse 4? Now, they've already been set
free, but they say in verse 4, turn again our captivity. O Lord,
as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears or reap
in joy, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed. God's people are going to go
through the valley. They're going to go through trouble
and trial. They're going to sow in tears, but they're going to
reap in joy. They're going to go forth weeping,
bearing precious seed, and they shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. You know, God's people,
have many, many, many reasons to weep while we're in this world.
But let's never forget this. We have great reason to rejoice
to such reason for rejoicing and happiness. And let me see
in just a few seconds if I could sum up the life of a believer
for you. At some point in our life, the
Lord reveals himself to us. In mercy and grace, he reveals
his son to us and in us, gives us faith in his son, and we believe
on Christ. We believe the gospel of God's
grace. We believe the gospel of Christ
that we've been hearing, and we just rejoice. Don't, oh, it's
just, you remember when you first trusted Christ? Every message,
you just hang on every word of every message. You just open
God's word and it seems like you're learning something new
and seeing something new every day. And it's such an exciting
time. Oh, you're so thankful. You're just thankful to the Lord.
And for long, the Lord sends you into the valley. It seems
pretty deep. And eventually, the Lord delivers
you. And you thought, the Lord delivered me. Seems too good
to be true. He delivered me from that. And a little while later,
you go a little deeper in the valley. And you think, I'm never
gonna get out of this. And then the Lord delivers you.
And you think, that's just too good to be true. The Lord keep
delivering me like that. It's too good to be true. And
the believer's life goes like that, wave after wave after wave,
until soon, One wave is just crashing right on top of another.
And you think this is going to crush me. I can't, I can't bear
anymore. And the Lord delivers you again.
And you still think it's too good to be true. And one day
in God's mercy and his grace, he allows you to close your eyes
in death. And you open them in glory and
you see the Redeemer. I'm going to tell you, I've never
been there, but I'm 100% sure this is true. We ain't gonna
care about streets of gold and pearly gates to see the face
of our Redeemer. And then we're gonna know. This
is too good to be true. But God made it so anyway, by
his power and by his grace. And maybe that'll help us the
next time we get down in the valley. The Lord's coming. He's
coming. and he'll deliver. And when he
does, he's going to do it in such a way to reveal his glory
and his power and his love for his people. We'll say, if I didn't
believe on Christ, this would be too good to be true. I preached
this at home several months ago, and a man told me on the way
out the door, he said, if it's not too good to be true, it's
not God's grace. Take it home, chew on it a while,
I think you'll see it's true. All right, Lord bless you. I
thank you so much for having me.