Okay, well, I'm doing a few one-off
sermons, if you like, before I start another series, and I
don't know what other series I will start just yet. So, in
the meantime, some isolated texts here and there, yet they're all
part of the Word of God. And this week, I want to bring
you to Psalm 126. Psalm 126, and particularly verse three.
The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof? We are glad. This little psalm,
only six verses, is a song of liberation. It's rejoicing in
freedom. Let's just read it again. When
the Lord turned again the captivity, that's not freedom, is it? That's
captivity. The captivity of Zion. We were
like them that dream. We were, whoa, whoa, what's happening? He's freed us from our captivity. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue with singing. And people noticed.
Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things
for them. Look at them, they're rejoicing. The Lord indeed has
done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity,
O Lord, as the streams in the south. Cause us to know that
we're no longer in that situation. They that sow in tears, in sorrow,
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed to sow, shall doubtless later come again
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves, his harvest, his abundance
with him. Well, it's a lovely little song,
a song of liberation. It's a song about a change of
state, from a state of captivity to a state of freedom. I've never
experienced anything physically like that, of having been a captive
and released, but I know many, many people have. It's an incredible
feeling to be a captive and then released from it. Tears to joy. a situation where your heart
is broken and there are tears of sorrow, to a situation which
is filled with joy, from sowing seed in sorrow to reaping a harvest
in rejoicing. And it's all because of what
the Lord has done for what it says here, great things for us. The Lord has done great things
for us. And so I want to ask three questions. about that little verse this
morning. Who is meant by us? Secondly,
what great things has the Lord done for them that are called
us? And what is the gladness this
knowledge, this experience produces? Well, first of all, us, unlike
what the majority of religion says, you ask the majority that
claim to be Christians, even claim to be true Christians,
and churches that claim to stand for the truth of God, what the
us means, and they will tell you it means everyone that ever
lived. But it clearly is not everyone who ever lived. Look
in verse two, there's a distinction made. Then was our mouth filled
with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they
among the heathen, the Lord's done great things for them. There's
clearly a division, a distinction that is made in the ranks of
humanity. There is a people, and from the
psalmist's point of view, it's what he calls us. There is a
people for whom God has done great things that he hasn't done
for the rest. Let me say it again. There's
a people for whom God has done great things that he hasn't done
for the rest. This is a people chosen of God. Chosen of God. You know what
Ephesians chapter one says, we quote it often enough, but don't
let the oft familiarity with it lead to complacency about
the power of the message. In verse three of Ephesians chapter
one, Paul says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus. Blessed be our God who has blessed
us has favoured us, has poured out his faith. There's the word
again, us, has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. That's a tremendous thing to
have. According, how has he blessed us, Paul? Show us. According,
in accordance with, he has chosen us in him, in Jesus Christ, before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will. The people that are called us
in this psalm are those that God has chosen by his own sovereign,
gracious choice, for no reason other then it is God's sovereign,
gracious choice. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will have compassion and mercy
on whom I will have compassion and mercy. God is a God of electing
grace. And the world, and especially
the religious world, of all sorts, of all flavors, basically, you
know, apart from the true gospel of Christ, All other religions
are fundamentally the same. They're all about we as we are
making ourselves acceptable to that which we regard as the deity,
as the one whom we must meet when we lead this life. But,
you know, God is a God of electing grace. 1 Thessalonians 1 and
verse 4, Paul says to the Thessalonians, knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. This religious world hates that
concept that God of his own choice should choose some and should
pass by others. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13,
again, a verse that should resonate in your mind. We are bound to
give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, for God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. What, not when
I made a decision? No, God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. The only way I know that you
are the elect of God is because you believe the gospel of truth,
the gospel of God, not the gospel of religious man, not the gospel
that man has decided is a more acceptable gospel. No. You know,
in these days in which we live, things are degenerating at such
a rate Even those that used to stand, and I'm not going to name
names at this point, but even those that used to stand as pillars
of the truth in this country of ours are now, I've had evidence
of it this week, and as I say, I won't go into detail, but a
once respected evangelical reformed organization asked a colleague
of mine whether the writings of his father could be changed
to suit the way people think about doctrine in our day. And
he said, absolutely no way. I'm glad to tell you that they've
backed off. No, the us is the people of God. It is the Israel
of God. As Galatians 6 verse 16 says,
The Israel of God are all of those who are the true children
of Abraham. What, by descent, the Jews, the
people that live in Israel in this modern day of political
turmoil? No, not at all. The spiritual
Israel of God. The spiritual children of God.
What makes someone a spiritual child of Abraham? Answer, according
to the scripture, They had the same faith that Abraham had. And as Abraham believed God,
they believed God. And as Abraham had his faith,
what was his faith? It wasn't his faith as a work
that was counted for righteousness. It was what he believed in that
was counted to him for righteousness. And what we believe in is the
Lord Jesus Christ dying for his people and paying his people's
sin debt that is counted to his people for righteousness. It's
the faith of Jesus Christ that saves his people from their sins.
This is true spiritual Zion, the us that he's speaking about.
The Lord has done great things for us. It's the true spiritual
Zion. Well, who are they then? How
many of them are there? It's a multitude that no man
can number, that are destined for eternal glory. If you were
to go to Revelation 7, as we did a few weeks, months ago,
Revelation 7 verse 9 then says, looking in heaven, John beheld
and I saw a multitude that no man can number, an innumerable
multitude. a multi-ethnic multitude of every
tribe and tongue and kindred, all there, all of one accord,
praising God for the glory of His grace in saving them from
their sins. In Revelation 19 and verse 1,
John beholds again in another vision, and I saw, he says, much
people in heaven. This is the us of which this
verse speaks. There are people who according
to The prophecy of Jeremiah, the Lord speaks by Jeremiah,
and he says in Jeremiah 31, verse three, the Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, an unchanging love, a love that's never altered as time
passes. You know, as we go through life,
Our emotions, our experiences, our ups and downs, things are
constantly changing. Not with God. I change not, says
God. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. A love that is always the same. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. God draws his people whom he
loved. Why did he love them? Just because
he loved them. Just because He, as God, sovereignly
chose. We'll never know, but he chose
to love this people. A multitude predestinated by
grace to be conformed to the image of God's Son. This is God's
unmerited choice to, as we read in Ephesians, the adoption of
children, to be called the children of God, the sons of God, to be
conformed, as Romans 8, 29 says, to be conformed to the image
of his son, because he makes this people, this us, joint heirs
with Christ. Everything that Christ is the
heir of, the inheritor of, he has made his people the inheritors
of. You protest, religious folk protest, well that's just grossly
unfair, isn't it? Isn't that grossly unfair? Turn
to Romans chapter 9, over in Romans chapter 9, And in verse
14, having talked about, having quoted the scripture from Malachi,
as it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated.
Then in verse 14, what shall we say then? You know, it's just
said that one guy is loved by God and his twin brother is hated
by God, is what that verse says. What? We need to change this
Bible. This Bible doesn't seem right
to me. This is what people say. We need to change this doctrine.
This doctrine doesn't seem right to us. We can't have people in
our modern world reading that and coming to terrible conclusions
about our religion because of what it says there. What shall
we say then? Verse 14. Is there unrighteousness with
God? That sounds so unfair. That sounds so unjust. God forbid. Perish the thought. Absolutely
not. The God of all the earth shall
do right, said Abraham. Surely, surely the God of all
the earth shall do right in his judgment on sin. He says to Moses,
no, we won't go on there just at the moment, just at the minute.
But look down at verse 18, that's what I wanted to say. In Romans
nine, verse 18. Therefore, God, he has mercy
on whom he will have mercy. It's his choice. This is entirely
his sovereign choice. And whom he will, he hardeneth. You say, that's not fair. It's
God's will. Thou wilt say unto me, why doth
he yet find fault? If he's made one like this and
you can't resist his will, why does he find one fault with the
one that he made that way? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Who are you that brings charges
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Our modern
day seems so much to say that sort of thing in the face of
God. Why have you made me like this? And then he says, has not
the potter power over the clay of the same lump, the same lump
of clay to make one vessel, one cup and to honor your posh china
and another and to dishonor just the rough old mug that you drink
your tea out of in the garden. What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had afore prepared unto glory? Even us, us, there it
is again, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles, the Israel of God,
the people chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
called in time, quickened by the Holy Spirit, made to know
the truth of God. This is the us of which the psalmist
speaks. Now, these are very high doctrines,
aren't they? The doctrines of predestination,
of sovereign grace, of election, of all the Calvinistic doctrines
that are summarized in that word tulip, total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of the saints. These are high doctrines and
they're all very scripturally based. You can't argue with them.
They are scripturally based. Have you grasped them? Have you
grasped them? It's very important that we're
right on our doctrine. It's very important that we know
true right doctrine. Have you grasped these doctrines?
If you say yes, I would say, so have many other religious
folk. You know, as Jesus said, he said, you say that you believe, the
devils also believe, and they tremble. It's one thing to believe,
but what effect does it have? Many other religious folk are
very precise on their doctrine. But they're not amongst the us
for whom the Lord has done great things. Many of them will find
themselves among that number who will say to the Lord in the
day of judgment, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things
in your name and for your sake? Surely you must take us into
heaven because of what we've done. And he will say unto them,
depart from me. I never knew you, you who work
iniquity. It isn't mentally assenting,
agreeing to high doctrine that confirms one as among the us
destined for heavenly bliss. You will never attain to the
paradise of God if you haven't been brought to feel in this
life your ruined condition as you are. It's not what you know
of doctrine, it's what you know of your sinnerhood, what you
are as a ruined sinner, what your sin has done to separate
you from God. how your sin is, as it's often
pictured in scripture, spiritual leprosy, which is an incurable
disease. If you've never felt that on
earth, you will never attain to the paradise of God in heaven. If you've never felt, and don't
worry, I'm not saying that there's a certain degree of it to be
attained, but to some degree, to some conscious degree, you
must know that you are a sinner, you are ruined as you are, that
you are incapable of having or doing anything that the Lord
can look upon and say, ah, because of this, I will count this one
better than others. Jesus said, I put it in a little
article in the bulletin, They complained about Jesus. The Pharisees,
the religious folks said, he can't be a true prophet because
look at him. He cavorts and eats with sinners. Look at that. He
spends his time with tax collectors who were regarded as the most
corrupt, evil, deceitful, deceptive, twisting people going. With the
prostitutes and all. He cavorts with them. How can
he be a holy man? We can't listen to what he said.
And Jesus replied and said to them, they that be whole, they
that be well, they that have no illness, don't need a doctor,
a physician. But they that are sick know that
they need a doctor. They that have a sickness know
that they need a doctor. What is the sickness that we
need to be shown that we have? To be confirmed as members of
this us, it's that sickness of sin. Have you felt your sin sickness? This psalm, this song of liberty
from captivity, in this psalm, God's spirit brings a soul to
feel their true captivity under the law, under the righteous
standard of God, that I'm subject to it and yet I cannot keep it
and I cannot attain to it and I'm in a captive state because
of that because I cannot do the things that God requires of me
to do that he might accept me in his kingdom and in his heaven
and I'm in that captive state and yet God's Spirit brings his
people, the us, to feel that true captivity so that he might
show them the release. We can know all about election.
We can know all the doctrines of predestination, of justification
from eternity, but we must be brought to feel captivity to
sin and Satan under God's law. To know that we must either keep
it perfectly continuously, unceasingly, or be justly condemned by it. It's well pictured in Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian is weighed down. He's in Vanity
Fair and he has a family going about their Vanity Fair business
all the time. but he is convicted of a burden
on his back, a burden of sin, and he's weighed down by that
burden, and they ridicule him for it, and they tell him to
pull himself together and not be so silly, and just to get
on with life and enjoy it, but he couldn't get rid of it. Why?
It was the Holy Spirit. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. He made him conscious of the
sin burden that would keep him from heaven. It made him conscious
that whilst that sin burden was there and he was responsible
for it, God can only justly condemn him to an eternal separation
from him in hell. Bunyan was like that, Pilgrim
was like that in Pilgrim's Progress, until he found the one thing
that is sufficient to remove that burden, and you know where
he found that, at the cross of Calvary, as he looked on the
Lord Jesus Christ dying there for him. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
I think this is one of the most important things that is often
overlooked. This is such a qualification
to be part of this number, this people, this us for whom the
Lord has done great things. So then let's look for a little
while at some of the great things that God has done for us, the
Lord has done for us. Firstly, I would say what God
does for his people is, for us, is he gives a true knowledge
of God. So many have ideas about God,
but not a true knowledge of God, not the truth of God revealed
in their souls. In Hebrews 11 and verse 6, the
chapter of faith, it says, he that cometh to God must believe
that he is. Sounds very simple, that, doesn't
it? We must have a sense of the being and presence and nature
of God, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. Oh, that you would show yourself
to me, cries the sinner, that you would show me your glory.
You see, by nature, we walk in spiritual darkness. The people
that walked in darkness, says Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 1 and
2, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. What's the light? God shines
his light. God, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6,
God who in the beginning said, let there be light. God who shined
light into creation has shined in our hearts. to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the face
of Jesus Christ. You see, there's more than the
witness of creation all around that speaks that there is a God,
a holy God, an omnipotent God. This is an inner sense of the
being of God, that there is this glorious being who is God, who
made me, who sustains me, who gives me life, who gives me my
next breath, who upholds all the laws of nature, who is holy,
who is perfectly just and righteous, who is great and omnipotent,
who speaks and a universe comes into being, is not sat on the
sidelines, impotent to do anything as the great forces of nature
take their course. No, he is the one who caused
it all, and it brings a sense of true fear. I'm not talking about a terror
of judgment at this stage, I'm talking about a fear of this
one, a reverence of this one. a sense of awe as to who this
God is. You know, the fear of the Lord,
this sense of who God is, and that I am tiny and God is immense
and fills the universe. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. If you would know anything, it's
the beginning of knowledge of life. In life, You have friends,
you have colleagues, you have family members who do not have
this sense of God, the true knowledge of God. They might ridicule you
for it. They might do. Some might even
respect you and admire you for it and say, oh, well, you've
got your great faith, that's very nice for you, isn't it,
that you've got your faith? But without it, You're not even
on the path to true life, the life that Jesus called abundant
life. I am come that they might have
life and have it more abundantly. It's not just the knowledge that
God is, but who he is. in his triune persons, the Trinity,
saving us, us, his people, from just condemnation. It's this
awareness of God who, this is what he's done for us, he's made
us aware of him, that the Father has chosen his people in electing
grace. Isaiah 55 verse 3, Incline your
ear and come unto me, here and your soul shall live. This is
God speaking to us. Here and your soul shall live.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. This is the covenant of grace
made between the persons of the Godhead. for the benefit of those
that he has loved with an everlasting love. It's what David experienced,
and in his dying days, in 2 Samuel chapter 23 and verse 5, David's
talking about it. It says in verse 1, these are
the last words of David, David the son of Jesse, and then in
verse 5, although my house be not so with God, About all the
blessings from God. My house be not so with God.
Why was your house not so with God, David? Because David had
sinned and the consequences of that sin came down on his house
for generations. And his sons fought and there
was murder and all sorts of terrible things went on. My house be not
so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Has the Lord God made with you? an everlasting covenant. Has
he shown you that covenant of determination to save you from
your sins? Ordered in all things and sure,
for this is all my salvation. What's all your salvation? Your
good works, David? No, the covenant that God himself,
the persons of the Godhead, has done. This is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow in amongst
his family, that is. So David was that man after God's
own heart. Yet in flesh, David we know was
a great sinner. He committed terrible sins. But
God saw all the effects of sin on not just David, but the multitude
he loved. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
he made complete provision for that sin, for that separation
from God. He came, he divinely undertook
to come and to procure and confirm the release of his people, our
release from sin's captivity. where Satan in the fall had made
us unqualified for God's kingdom, God in the gospel has justly
qualified us for his kingdom. Justly done it. He hasn't swept
the sin under the carpet. He's dealt with it. He's paid
for it. He's removed it so that it's
taken away. His people are the righteousness
of God in him and thereby qualified for heaven. He sent his son who
willingly came to die the death of justice, demanded for our
sins, and he sent him to die for the sins of the people he
loved and them alone. It's gross error to say that
He sent Him to die for everybody and then whoever wants to choose
it and have it for themselves, that's their lookout, that's
their benefit. No, He came and He died for the
sins of His people and them alone. He's Emmanuel. Emmanuel means
God with us. Emmanuel, who is God with us,
the eternal Son of God, sharing the glory of God, laid that glorious
side to come down to this earth, to bleed the blood of God. I'm choosing my words carefully. Why did he bleed the blood of
God? To purchase the freedom from
captivity of his church, of his bride, of us, of his people,
of his elect. How do I know that? Acts chapter
20, verse 28. I often quote it. Paul, to the
elders of the Ephesian church on the beach at Miletus, told
them to take care of the church of God which he purchased with
his own blood. I'm not making it up. It's there
in the scripture. How is it the blood of God? It's
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God himself, who is spirit, does
not have blood. God himself, who is spirit, cannot
die, but he became man who has both blood and can die, that
he might shed his blood as the payment of the sins of his people.
Jesus, his name means saviour, you shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus, the saviour
of his people, is holy, harmless, undefiled, without sin, but made
sin. And where animal sacrifices only
symbolize the forgiveness of sin, the payment for sin, He
said, and we read it earlier, it's quoting Psalm 40, verse
seven, Stephen read it for us in Hebrews 10, verses seven and
then again in verse nine, lo, I come. The animal sacrifices
weren't just pictures, they weren't enough to effect the forgiveness
of sins. And so he, the Son of God said,
lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me to do thy will. Lo, I come, a body hast thou
prepared for me. It says elsewhere, in Hebrews,
a body has been prepared. Lo, I come in a body which can
shed blood and can die. The God-man, God perfectly contracted
to a span that he might be judged under the law for the sins of
his people and pay its penalty. Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do thy will, to do the will
of the Father, the will of God. What is the will of God? John
6, 39. They asked him, what is the will of God? He said, this
is the Father's will, which has sent me, oh right, so we don't
need some theological school to tell us, it's here in our
Bibles. This is the Father's will, which has sent me, that
of all which he has given me, all what? All the people. Of
all the people, which people? The people he chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He gave them to Christ,
why? As a bride, as a bride for his
son. the bride of Christ. There's
going to be a marriage in heaven of Christ and his bride, that
of all those that constitute the bride of Christ, that of
all which he has given me, I should lose nothing. Not one of them
will be lost to Satan and to hell, but should raise it up
again at the last day. It will be there with me in heaven. All the hell our sins merited
was poured into his soul. The Lord has done great things
for us. He's done great things for us.
All the hell our sins merited was poured into his soul. He,
the infinite God, made man, made human, came to pay the debt of
our sin. As Peter says, 1 Peter 3.18,
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened, made alive by the Spirit. without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins. But he came and shed
his blood that our sins might be remitted. This is the supreme
of all great things that he, the Lord, has done for us. He's
done, done, completed, finished, ended. There's no chance of doubt
about this. There are no ifs and there are
no buts. God unified us, this people that he's talking about
here, and Christ in divine justice before time, so that in time,
as Jesus said a couple of verses earlier than the one we quoted
just before in John 6, 37, all that the Father gives to me,
all this people that the Father has given to him, what? Shall
come to me. They shall come, all of them.
What, you mean, what if they decide not to? No, they all shall
come. And whosoever comes, I will in
no wise cast out, he said. They're accepted. We, us, we're
accepted if we believe in him. We're accepted. We're made sinless
in him. We're made the righteousness
of God in him before God's justice. Hebrews 9 verse 26 says this,
but now once in the end of the world, he hath appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as Daniel prophesied
in Daniel chapter 9, 24, I quote it again, he came to finish transgression,
to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness. It's not only the Father's electing
grace and his sustaining power of Christ as he came down to
this earth to fulfil the Father's will, and it's the Son's willing
submission to accomplish everything, which was the joy that was set
before him, but it's also the Holy Spirit's regenerating power
to bring us to the knowledge of this truth, to the experience
of this salvation, to the life of God, to communion with God. So sinners are made willing.
It says in Psalm 110 verse three, and this is the Holy Spirit's
work, this covenant of grace, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Here's the Holy Spirit's work, that his people are made willing
in the day of his power. So Jesus is walking on the road
into Jericho, and there's Zacchaeus, the tax collector, the deceitful
tax collector, the fraudulent tax collector, the man of short
stature, who went up into a tree thick with leaves that he might
just be nosy and observe, who is this one that they're all
talking about? And when the Holy Spirit came to him as Jesus walked
by and Jesus looked up into that tree, Zacchaeus knew his name. Zacchaeus, you come down. You
must come down from that tree. And today salvation came to that
house. The Philippian jailer in Philippi
holding Paul and Silas in pain from their beatings that they'd
had in the stocks in the jail at night. The Philippian jailer
must be brought to cry. What must I do to be saved? Mary Magdalene, the woman of
ill repute, must be brought to the feet of Jesus to wash his
feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Saul of Tarsus,
breathing fury and venom against the Church of God and against
the followers of this imposter, Jesus, as he thought. On the
Damascus road, the light shone, and Paul is brought to his knees. Saul is brought to his knees.
to cry out, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
Immediately, immediately, all of the resistance and opposition
is gone. Lord, what would you have me
to do? And you know about the rest. The Spirit of God brings
all our efforts and our hopes in our personal improvement to
absolutely nothing. He strips us bare. He brings
us to take hold of Christ. He gives us repentance over sin,
sorrow, true sorrow over sin, seeing what it has done, seeing
how it offends God, seeing what it caused for God to save us
from that sin in sending His Son to the cross. eyes of the
soul to see the truth of God, a willingness to serve God. Are
these not all great things that God has done for us who believe
Him? Has He done them for you? Has
He done great things for you in saving your soul? Oh, the
blessing of being able to say with Paul, as he did in 2 Timothy
1 and verse 12, Paul said this, and the us the us of this verse
three are able to say this, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded,
convinced that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. What have I committed unto him?
The eternal well-being of this soul of mine. I've committed
unto him and he is able to do it and to save it and to take
us to be with him through that day of judgment. The Lord hath
done great things for us, whereof we are glad. The heathen, in
verse two, may indifferently observe the liberty rejoicing
of God's blessed people. The heathen looked and said,
the Lord's done great things for them, they may indifferently
observe it. But this is a key mark of being
actual beneficiaries of God's grace. And I'll close just by
reminding you, Philippians three, verse three, Us, we are the true
circumcision. We are the true Israel of God. We are that true Israel of God,
who what? Worship God in the spirit. Jesus said to the Samaritan
woman, they who worship God must worship him in spirit and in
truth. We worship God in the spirit.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. He has done great things for
us, whereof we are glad. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. All our hope is in him. and we
have no confidence in the flesh. What is your qualification for
heaven? As Happy Jack said, I'm a poor
sinner and nothing at all, because the Holy Spirit's taught me that.
But Jesus Christ is my all in all. Amen.