It's so good to see all of you
this evening. If you would, open your Bibles with me to Genesis
chapter 39. That is where my text will be taken from this
evening. And while you're turning there, let me tell you that in
the past eight days, I've become spoiled getting to see you three
times and worship together three times. And because of scheduling
difficulties, I won't be able to be back until October. But I want you to know that from
then until, or from now until then, that you'll be in my prayers,
as you always are. You mean so much to me. And I'm
gonna borrow the words of the Apostle Paul to the church at
Philippi. He said, I thank my God upon
every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you
all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. I thank God for you too. Paul
just said it better than me. All right. I've titled the message
tonight, Christ the Servant We Can Trust. Last Tuesday evening
I brought a message on Joseph and Seem to be a blessing and
this is why I'm going through at home on the midweek services
going through the book of Genesis And I want to continue that where
we left off last Tuesday with the Christ the servant that we
can trust And it is my goal this evening
that the Holy Spirit will enable me to preach Christ the servant
using Joseph as a picture In such a way that it'll cause each
of us to believe on him to rest in Him, because I'm telling you
this, He's worthy of our trust. He is the Savior, He is the servant
that's worthy of our trust. I pray maybe that the Lord will
give you faith in Christ for the very first time tonight,
that He'll reveal Christ to your heart for the very first time,
and you'll leave here rejoicing in Christ your Savior. Or maybe,
for the 10,000th time, the Lord will show you Christ again. and
you'll leave here tonight rejoicing in Christ your Savior. Now Joseph,
who was the favorite son of his father, became a servant in Egypt. Now when all of this was happening,
this is a trial for Joseph, for him to go from the favorite son
to a slave in Egypt. Joseph did not know why this
was happening. Now Joseph knew the Lord was
doing it, But he didn't know what God's purpose was in any
of this. The same way we are in our trials. The Lord sends these trials and
difficulties our way, and the first thing I know is this, and
you too, God's doing this. This is God's eternal will and
purpose that He's carrying out. Now what God's purpose is in
it, I don't know. And really, you know what? I
may never know. I mean, there are trials I've
gone through in the past. I can look back now, and I can see
what good that the Lord brought out of that. Some of them I can't. I know He has, just because I
can't see it doesn't mean He doesn't do it. But we don't know
why God's doing what He's doing. And that's what was going on
in Joseph's mind, as he was taken and sold by his brethren to be
a slave. My goodness. Now we know the
end of the story. We have a big advantage Joseph
didn't have. We know the end of the story. Joseph has got
to be in Egypt, doesn't he? So he can be made second in command
of the most powerful nation on earth so that many people will
be saved alive during those seven years of famine by Joseph's wisdom.
But I hear Joseph is with his father. He's under his father's
wing. How's Joseph gonna get to Egypt? Now it's up to you
and me, this is what we do, see if this isn't right. What we
do is we'd have, you know, somehow the fame of Joseph spread and
Pharaoh would hear of it. And Pharaoh would send a gold-plated
chariot to Joseph and invite him to come back to Egypt to
help him manage this famine. That's the way you and I, that's
what we do, isn't it? But that's not how the Lord's
gonna do it. The Lord in his providence is gonna bring Joseph
to Egypt as a slave. So that in a matter of a day,
he can be raised to the throne of Egypt as a picture of Christ
the Savior, who is King of kings. Yet he came to this earth as
a servant. He came as a servant to do his
father's will. See, God did all of this as a
picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's God over all. He's King
of kings and He is Lord of lords. He's sovereign. He's sovereign
in everything. I've heard that tonight back
in the study and I hear it from the pulpit. God's sovereign.
And like Brother Don used to say, you can't take that too
far. God's sovereign. I mean in everything. I mean
in the dust flying through the air, God is sovereign. I just,
I wish we could really completely understand God's sovereign. Yet He became a servant. The
sovereign, the potentate became a servant so that He could save
His people from their sin. Now that's astounding. It's astounding
love, astounding humiliation. The Son, became a servant. That's why in Isaiah chapter
42, the father called Christ, behold, my servant. He's my servant. He's my son. He's the king. He's
my servant whom I uphold. Now I have five points I want
us to see tonight. I pray will make us trust Christ,
Christ the servant. Number one is this, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the son of God, He humbled himself to come down. He came down to earth as a servant. Verse one of Genesis 39, and
Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Now again, you just try to spend
some time this evening or tomorrow thinking about the shocking change
of life for Joseph, that he went from being the favorite son to
a slave in Egypt. He was taken down to Egypt. He
didn't know anybody there. He didn't know the language of
the people there. He wasn't like anybody there. And he had to
endure being a slave that nobody cared about. Back when Joseph
was under his father's wing, he's the favorite son, everybody
cared what Joseph thought about. Everybody cared how Joseph was
feeling. Everybody cared how this all
was impacting Joseph. Not anymore. Nobody cared anything
about Joseph. That's such a good picture of
Christ our Savior. I'm telling you, he came down. Oh, how he came down. Look at
Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two. In verse six. Let's start at verse five. Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. It wasn't robbery for him to
say he's equal with God, because he is God, but made himself of
no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. and was
made in the likeness of men. That's the longest journey that's
ever been taken. The Son of God to come down and
become a man. I remember my dad said one time, trying to think of an illustration,
how is it that we could illustrate how far Christ came down to be
a man? Dad said if you took a human
being, full grown adult, and went down to become a maggot,
I mean a maggot in the trash, to compare that to how far Christ
came down to be a man, Dad said that's an insult to maggots everywhere.
I mean he came down. The Son of God came into this
world and he's not like anybody here. He's holy, they're unholy. He's righteous, they're unrighteous. He's eternal, they're temporary. In glory, where he came from,
he's worshipped. The seraphims fly around his
throne, worshipping him, crying, holy, holy, holy. He came to
the world where he was despised and rejected. And he did all
of that willingly. Now, this happened to Joseph
against his will. Christ did all of this willingly
so that he could be the servant who could do all the work that
was required to save his people from their sin. See, he loved
those people, and he was determined to do anything and everything
it took to redeem them from their sin. Now, Joseph, he may have
complained at some point about all of this that was happening
to him. But you know what? We don't read one word of that
in scripture. Not one word. And I'll tell you
why the Holy Spirit did it just that way. So we'd have a picture
of Christ. The Lord Jesus came to this earth
and he never one time complained about his circumstances. And
you know why? Because everything that happened
to him as a man during his earthly ministry, everything that happened
to him, everything everybody said about him, everything everybody
thought about him, everything everybody did to him, was his
own will taking place. His friend Judas betrayed him.
You know why? That was God's will. He had David
write about it hundreds and hundreds of years before, just so we know
it was his will. I mean, it was hurtful, but that
was God's will. The men at the cross, they did
as their wicked hearts wanted to do. But it seemed like they
went back to the scriptures and followed a script in a play,
doesn't it? They were doing what God before
determined to be done. The Lord willed for them to do
it, so he's not going to complain when they do it, because he's
the one that willed it. I mean, you just think of that,
how he willingly endured that for his people. In all things,
The Lord Jesus Christ was the willing servant. He's the bond
slave. Now, you know the bond slave
in the Old Testament Scriptures. A bond slave was a willing slave. A bond slave, maybe he was enslaved
because he had a debt or, you know, whatever, and it was for
a temporary fixed time until he worked off his debt. And at
the end of that time, the debt's paid, he can go free. But the
slave says, I love my master so much. I love serving my master. I'm going to keep being his slave.
I refuse to go free." That's the Lord Jesus Christ, the bond
slave. He loved his father so much, he refused to avoid doing
what it would take to please his father, even when it meant
sacrificing himself, even when it meant making his soul an offering
for sin. He refused to avoid it. because
he was the willing bond slave to his father. He was going to
do his father's will. He loved his people so much,
he refused to go free from the punishment of the law. Remember
those men at the cross mocked him, said, come down from the
cross and we'll believe you. You say you're the son of God,
come down from the cross and we'll believe you. Well, he had the
power to do it without any question. Of course he had the power to
do it, but he didn't. You know why? Because he loved
his people. And the only way they can be
redeemed, the only way they can be made one with Him, the only
way they can be His bride, who will be with Him where He is,
beholding His glory, is if He suffers and dies to put her sin
away. And He did it, willingly, because He loved them. If you're
still there in Philippians 2, you read on in verse 7. Now He's
equal with God, but He made Himself of no reputation. and took upon
him the form of a servant who was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now wherefore,
because he did that, God also hath highly exalted him, given
him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, things in heaven and things in earth
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see the reason for the exaltation
of Christ? It was his willing humiliation. It was his willing humiliation
to obey his own law. It was his willing humiliation
to suffer and die to put away the sin of his people. That's
why he's exalted, because he did everything that the Father
sent him to do. Now you can trust your soul to Christ the servant. He's already done everything
the Father required for his people to be saved. When the Savior
cried from the cross, it is finished, he wasn't whistling Dixie. He
meant it's finished. And he's the only servant who
could ever say that. He's the only servant who could ever say
that. Salvation's finished. Redemption's finished. The payment
price is finished. There is no more sacrifice. It's
finished. And you know why it's finished?
He did everything perfectly. That sound like a Savior you
can trust? All right, number two, look back in our text. Here's
the second thing. The Lord Jesus Christ prospered
as a servant. Genesis 39, verse one. And Joseph
was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him at the hands of the
Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord
was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his
master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was
with him, and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his
hand. Now Joseph was brought down to
Egypt as a slave, And everything this kid did turned to gold. I mean, he had the Midas touch.
I mean, you think about that. He didn't know the language,
he doesn't know the people, he doesn't know the customs, and everything
he touched turned to gold. If Joseph planted a field, it
brought a bumper crop. If Joseph went and bought something
for his master Potiphar and resold it, he made a killing. I mean, the profit margin was
astronomical. If something around the house broke, Joseph's in
charge. If something around the house broke, Joseph fixed it,
it's better than new. Everything Joseph did made a
profit for his master Potiphar. And you know Potiphar was awful
glad Joseph was his servant, don't you? He was so prosperous. Now you see what a good picture
of Christ the Savior that is? Everything the Lord Jesus Christ
did as a servant for his father prospered because he did it perfectly. Everything he's done is perfect.
He came to obey his father's law. He didn't come to do his
own will, he said, but the will of my father, which is in heaven.
He obeyed his father's law so perfectly, he honored and magnified
the law. You know, when we look at the
law, the law's against us, isn't it? Oh, the law pronounces its
judgment and condemnation upon us. But in Christ, we look at
the law and we can say with David, oh, I love thy law. I love your,
I see now, because Christ obeyed it so well, so perfectly, he
honored and magnified the law. He obeyed the law so perfectly,
untold millions of people were made righteous by his obedience. Now Christ came on a mission
from his father. He came with a message of salvation
from his father. And he spoke all of those words
that his father gave him to say perfectly. He said in John 17,
verse eight, Father, I've given unto them the words which thou
gavest me. I've given it. And they've received
them. You know why they received them?
Because he said them. It's because of who said them.
He did such a good job of speaking for God to men, even men that
didn't believe Him. You know what they had to say?
Never man spake like this man. Boy, these scribes and these
Pharisees, every time they speak, they bring me down. They're beating
me up with the law and talking about how awful I am. I got to
do this, and I got to do this, and I got to do this, and I can't
do this, and I can't do this, and I can't do this. Never man
spake like this man. Grace and truth came by Him.
He speaks and grace is dripping from His lips. Forgiveness is
dripping from His lips and it's in truth. It's in truth. Never may I speak like this man.
Christ spoke the words that the Father gave Him to say so well
that if anybody ever hears Him speak, you'll have eternal life. You can hear a preacher preach,
you can hear a preacher speak, and you can learn some good things.
I mean, I'm gonna tell you that from experience, I mean, from
a little kid. I mean, I heard the gospel, I knew in my head
some good things. Now, I didn't believe Christ,
I didn't know Christ, I didn't love Christ, but I knew some good
things. There's a whole great big difference
in hearing a preacher and hearing Christ speak. When Christ speaks
to your heart, you'll have eternal life. You'll believe and you'll
have eternal life. I mean eternal life, a life that
cannot be lost simply because he spoke to you. That's pretty
prosperous, isn't it? That's pretty prosperous. This
is the very reason we beg God, the Holy Spirit, to speak through
us whenever we preach. Because I'm wasting your time
if all you hear is me. Oh, but if God will take His
word and speak to you, you'll have eternal life. That's prosperous. And you know, all this prosperity
that the Savior brought, you know, it was no surprise. The
Father always knew His Son, when He sinned, He would be the prosperous
servant. 700 years before Christ was born. 700 years! I was thinking about
how old this country is. I mean, two and a half times
something, I mean, way longer than this country's even been
in existence, 700 years. Isaiah prophesied this, the pleasure
of the Lord is gonna prosper in his hand. He's gonna be the
prosperous servant. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth, the angel said for this reason, to save his people
from their sin. That's what he came to do. And
he was such a prosperous servant that he fully and completely
saved all of his people from all of their sin, and throughout
eternity, not one of them will ever be lost. Ever. That's prosperous. You wanna hang your soul on that
Savior? I do. I hope you do. All right, here's
the third thing. The Lord Jesus Christ is such
a prosperous servant. The Father gave everything he
has to Christ. Verse four in our text says,
And Joseph found grace in his sight, in Potiphar's sight, and
he served him. And Potiphar made him overseer
over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer
in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the
Egyptians' house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing of the
Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the field.
And he left all that he had in Joseph's hands. And he knew not
all that he had, save the bread, which he did eat." Potiphar trusted
Joseph so much, he never checked the books. Never. The only thing
he knew he had was what Joseph said in front of him to eat.
He didn't know what was in the barn. He didn't know what was
in the storehouse. He didn't know what was in the
field. All he had was what Joseph set in front of him deep. He
didn't worry about the rest of it. Because Joseph is in charge
of it. If Joseph is in charge of it,
Potiphar said, I don't have to worry about it. He didn't have
an annual audit. to make sure Joseph wasn't cooking
the books. Everywhere I've ever worked,
we had an annual audit. We had to show these accountants,
this whole team of accountants come in and looking over everything. Well, you can't be friendly with
them now. They're trying to see if you're a crook. They got to
check all these books. Bonhoeffer never did that. You
know why? Joseph's in charge. He didn't go check the storehouse
and wonder, you know, Joseph's stealing from me. Is this a Ponzi
scheme? He's telling me the storehouse is full and it's not. He never
went to check the storehouse. Joseph's in charge. There's no need for
him to do that. This is what Potiphar did. Potiphar,
he's the captain of the guard. Potiphar goes into work early,
or goes into work and he leaves early. He didn't go, he's winning
right on time. He left early to go play golf
with the mayor or something. He didn't have to worry about
anything. Joseph's in charge. No worries. I told our folks at home this,
I love you so I'll tell you this too, just as a side note. Every
employee here should have earned that trust already from our boss. I think one of the best, you
know how you have these annual, semi-annual, annual evaluations? The best compliment you ever
receive from your boss is, I don't know what you're doing and I
really don't have to check up on you because I know you're doing
right. We all ought to have earned that trust from our boss. Joseph,
first and foremost, preeminently now, he's a type of Christ. Be
a pretty good example for employees too, isn't he? We ought to have
earned that trust with our honesty and integrity. Get that for free. The Potiphar, turning everything
over to Joseph, that's a picture of Christ. That's what we're
looking for here. The Lord Jesus Christ is trustworthy. So the
father turned over everything to him. And he began with his
most precious possession, the thing that's most precious to
him. He turned over to his son the glory of his character, the
glory of his name. The father elected a people to
save, and he gave them to his son. And his son said, father,
I'll redeem them." And the father trusted him. And he turned his
whole purpose of redemption over to his son. Now if the son fails
in that purpose, if he fails to save even one that the father
gave him to save, the father is going to lose all of his glory. All of it. All of it. I don't
know if you've ever supervised people. In times past, I have. And if I signed a group of people,
a task or project or whatever, old Frank's checking up on it.
I'm checking their progress. I'm checking what they're doing.
Because my name's attached to that. If this thing fails, my
boss is calling me into his office. I'm checking on this thing. The
Father gave redemption to His Son and trusted Him. He trusted all of His glory to
His Son. And the Father was never worried
about it. Ephesians 1 verse 12 says that
it was the father who was the first one to ever trust in Christ.
Now when did the father trust Christ? In the council halls
of eternity when they struck hands and the father's then son
said father I'll do it and the father said son I trust you.
The father was the first one to trust Christ. Now again this
is one of those things that's just the the keen I'm trying
to think of what that fella said about me at work. Frank has a
keen grasp of the obvious or something. This is the obvious.
If the Father trusts Christ, I believe I can too. I believe
I can too. And the Father trusted Christ
with good reason. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the servant that will not fail. That cannot fail. Isaiah 42 verse four says, he
shall not fail. nor be discouraged." He's not
going to fail. And since the Lord Jesus Christ
did everything the Father sent Him to do, the Father put everything,
everything into the hand of His Son. Let me just give you a couple
of examples. He put all judgment into the
hand of His Son. John 5, verse 22, the Savior
said, the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
to the Son. Now you know, that makes me happy
to read. That makes me so happy. I love to think about the one
who died for me, who died for my sins, he's my judge. Nobody knows better than he does,
my sin's been put away, because he's the one that put it away.
The Father gave all judgment in the hand of the Son. The Father
put all flesh, believer and unbeliever alike, all flesh into the hand
of His Son. John 17, verse 2, Thou hast given
Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given Him. Christ has power over all flesh,
not just the believer, unbelievers too. That makes me awful happy. If He has power over me, and
he's holding me in his hand, I can't jump out. And if he has
power over all flesh and he's holding me in his hand, nobody
can pluck me out either. I'm glad to have all flesh in
his hands, aren't you? Now I could give you lots of
examples of what the Father's put in the hands of the Son,
but I'll just sum it up by saying what I said when I started. The
Father's put everything, everything into the hand of Christ. Acts
10, verse 36, said, the word which God sent unto the children
of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, and this says in
parentheses, just in case you don't know who Jesus Christ is,
he's Lord of all. He's Lord of all. He's Lord over
everything. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, verse
22, that he hath put all things under his feet, all things, and
he's given him to be the head over the church. Now if Christ
is Lord of all, and he rules over everything that happens,
then nothing can happen that would make him lose even one
for whom he died. Now if you haven't been there
yet, and you're a child of God, one day for too long probably,
you'll find yourself in this situation. where you're in the midst of
trial, you're hurting, it's dark, it might be dark outside. That
tends to be when I have the darkest thoughts, when it's dark outside.
And you think, God's just cast me off. He just forgot about
me. This is just what I deserve.
He's casting me off. And nothing will wrench your
heart out worse than that. When you find yourself in that
darkness, with both hands, you hang on to this. Nothing can
happen that will make him lose one of his elect. He'll never
cast them off. And he'll never lose one. Never. As far as I'm concerned, that's
pretty good reason to trust him. Then here's the fourth thing.
All of God's elect are blessed for Christ's sake, for the sake
of Christ's servant. Verse five says, it came to pass
from the time that he made him overseer in his house and over
all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house
for Joseph's sake. Now, everything going on in this
story, God is blessing Joseph. And I think it's real important
for us to remember Joseph has just been taken from his family
and sold as a slave in Egypt, and God's blessing him. God's
blessing him because God loves Joseph. And Potiphar, he's just
a bystander to all this, and he just happened to benefit because
of his connection to Joseph. I love what Brother Fortner said
in his commentary on this verse. He said, Egypt was altogether
insignificant. except for the fact that Joseph
was there. Can't you just hear him saying
that? Egypt was altogether insignificant, except for the fact that Joseph
was there. And later on, not only will Potiphar be blessed,
and I think about this, you know the end of the story later on,
pretty soon, Potiphar storehouses that Joseph had all stocked,
they're empty. and Potiphar's gotta go to Joseph
for food. And you wanna know something?
Joseph gave it to him. Pretty soon Potiphar and all
of Egypt and people from all around the world and especially
those 70 children of Israel are gonna be blessed for Joseph's
sake. God blessed the whole world.
He kept the whole world alive to save 70 people. Because he promised he's bringing
the Messiah through Judah. And he saved the whole world.
I mean, some people I reckon starved to death, but he saved
a bunch of people alive for the sake of 70. For Joseph's sake. Now that's
the life of every believer. Every believer here will have
to say this, it's true. The only reason I've ever been
blessed with anything is for Christ's sake. It has to be for
Christ's sake, because I never earned any blessing from God.
We have the blessing of righteousness. Not just a righteous standing
before God, but righteousness, a righteous nature, for Christ's
sake. Because Christ earned it by obeying
the law for us. We have redemption for Christ's
sake because he shed his blood to pay the redemption price for
our sin. We have the forgiveness of sin for Christ's sake because
Christ shed his blood that our sin would be forgiven. We have
eternal life for Christ's sake. We live because Christ died in
our place as our substitute. It's for Christ's sake, isn't
it? Do you know even what we're doing right now? You know, oh
how I pray the Lord's blessing this word to your heart. But
even what we're doing right now, the preaching of the gospel.
Do you know that's for Christ's sake? Now you and I benefit from
the preaching of the gospel. I mean, we can't live without
it, can we? I mean, you just can't overestimate the importance
of having a place. where you can come in peace and
harmony and hear the gospel preached. The value of that can't be overestimated
in this life. Christ is revealed to us by the
preaching of the gospel. That's the only way our soul
can be saved, is by Christ being revealed to us, and he reveals
himself to us by the preaching of the word. God's people are
fed and they're strengthened for Christ's sake. One of our
dear men at home will frequently tell me on a Sunday, I believe
I can make it to Wednesday now. And on Wednesday you tell them,
I believe I can make it to Sunday now. It's because the preaching
of the gospel strengthens his heart. I believe I can go on
a little bit now. We benefit, don't we? But the
gospel is preached for Christ's sake. The gospel is preached
so that the name of Christ will be honored and magnified in this
world. That's the purpose of the gospel. And this is something I remind
myself of frequently. Let's never lose sight of that. The gospel's not preached so
we can gain a following. The gospel is not preached so
people can say, what a good preacher we are, how faithful we are.
The gospel is preached for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. And brethren, if we lose sight
of that, our congregation, our children, our grandchildren,
and our community are all gonna suffer. They're all gonna suffer. Not unto us, oh Lord. not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory. That's why the gospel's preached.
It's so that Christ would be glorified. And if Christ is glorified,
I promise you this, God's people will be blessed for Christ's
sake. That's just the truth of the matter. You know, really,
you can't think of one blessing that you have, that you have
for any reason other than for Christ's sake. The Father has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Just think of them. How many ever you can think of?
All of them, all of them. Why? In Christ. In Christ. Everything God requires
for us to have, He's given to us in Christ. He's put them all
in Christ. Let me tell you this one more
time. Everything that you need is in Christ. Now go to him. Go to Christ. Everything you
need is in him. That's what a prosperous servant
that he is. And here's the last thing. Christ the servant is
a goodly person. At the end of verse six it says,
and Joseph was a goodly person and well favored. Now that word
goodly means a beautiful visage. And well favored means an appearance
and a phenomenon. Joseph, on top of being smart
and resourceful and hardworking, he's handsome, too. He's the
man all of us men want to hate and all the women want to love.
He's just, I mean, what a guy. But that's a picture of Christ.
Even Joseph's physical appearance is for Christ's sake, who is
altogether lovely. His mercy, his grace, is altogether
lovely. His truth, his justice, his love
is beautiful. It's altogether lovely, isn't
it? Now here's some good news for you. Christ's beauty is the
beauty of his people. Every believer, right at this
very moment, is as beautiful as Christ himself. And you'll
think, I don't see myself that way. Well, that's a pretty good
indication then that you're as beautiful as Christ himself if
you think I'm not that beautiful. Because this is what the word
of God says. As he is, so are we in this world. Even in this
world, the believer is as beautiful as Christ himself. And giving
his beauty to his people came at great cost to the Savior.
In order to give vile, dead, guilty, ugly sinners like you
and me his beauty, the Savior had to take our filth, our iniquity,
our ugliness into his body upon the tree and he had to be sacrificed
for our sin. And when he was sacrificed, that
beautiful visage, the phenomenon of the God-man, of God-made flesh
hanging on the cross, was marred more than any other man. His
visage was marred more than any other man. They beat and tortured
his body more than anybody else they ever crucified. And his physical sufferings give
us a hint of what he suffered. He made his soul an offering
for sin. Business was done between the
father and the son in the soul. That was where his suffering
was the greatest. And it showed in his body. Grief and pain, mental pain,
grief. It shows in our body, doesn't
it? It shows in our physical body. That's what happened to
our Savior. How it showed in his body. And
he endured all of that willingly. He didn't hide. He gave his back
to the smiters. He gave his cheeks to those that
would pluck out his beard. He willingly submitted to all
that. You know why? So he could make
his people beautiful with his beauty that he put on us. I want to be careful how I say
this, because I don't want to come off mean and hard. But if that doesn't break your
heart and make you want to run to Him,
it's because you've got a heart of stone. I mean, that's just
all I can say about it. And I pray God will give each
one of us a new heart that will cause us to run to Him. I'm telling
you, when we do, we'll find everything we need. I appreciate y'all having
me for three straight services. I've enjoyed it so much and I
thank God for you. Pray God will bless you.