Brother Bill, I want to tell
you, that was worth the drive. I've never heard that song sung
better, and that's saying something. I remember Frank Sweet singing
that song. I've never heard it better. That was outstanding.
Thank you. If you would, open your Bibles with me to Numbers
chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12. It's so good
to be with you all again and see you. I pray that the Lord
will enable us to worship together. I titled the message this evening,
Has the Lord Spoken Only by Moses? I want to read this chapter. We'll come back and make a few
comments. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of
the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he had married an
Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord
indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?
And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And
the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto
Miriam. Come out ye three under the tabernacle
of the congregation. And they three came out, and
the Lord came down on the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the
door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both
came forth, and he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet
among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in
a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses
is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will
I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord
shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them, and he departed. And the cloud departed
from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous,
white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam,
and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas,
my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein
we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be
as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed, when he cometh
out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the Lord
said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should
she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the
camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.
Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days, and the people
journeying north to Miriam was brought in again. And afterward,
the people were moved from Hazeroth and pitched in the wilderness
of Paran." Now, this Ethiopian woman who Moses married, from
what I read, is Zipporah. It's the woman that he married
when he left Egypt and came across the desert and found the girls
keeping the sheep. She's the daughter of Jethro,
the priest of Midian. Now Zipporah wasn't from Ethiopia,
but they called her Ethiopian because of her black skin. At
least that's what I read. Now Miriam and Aaron spake against
Moses. And what they said was they were
speaking against him because he married this black woman.
Now, you read what happened to Miriam because of that, how the
Lord struck her with leprosy. You know, that just goes to show
us Racial prejudice goes way, way back. I mean, it's just ingrained
in human nature. And it also shows us what God
thinks about this matter. You know the very last people
on earth who should be racial bigots are believers. Because
that goes against everything that we believe. We know there's
sins in the heart, don't we? and salvation's in the heart.
Spiritual truth, how God deals with men, has got absolutely
nothing to do with our outward appearance. That's what we believe,
salvation by grace. But truth be told, Miriam and
Aaron weren't really speaking against Aaron, or against Moses,
because of his white skin color. Zipporah has got nothing to do
with this whatsoever. Miriam and Aaron are mad at Moses
over something else. John Gill thinks that they're
mad at Moses, because in the previous chapter, Moses told
the Lord, this people's too much for me. They're just too much.
He said, if I found grace in your sight, just kill me. I mean,
what have I done that you make me have to lead this people?
They're too much for me. And the Lord told Moses, you're right.
He said, choose you out of 70 elders from among the people,
and they'll help you rule the people, govern the people. And
that's what Moses did. He picked out these 70 elders,
and they helped rule Israel. And he did that by himself. He
didn't get any input from his brother and sister, and they
were mad about it. They had somebody, you know,
they wanted to promote up and get in this, you know, kind of
have their political, you know, power structure and so forth.
They're mad at Moses because Moses is the real leader who's
been appointed by God. Moses was considered to be the
prophet of God, and God said that down here. He's the prophet.
He's the prophet in the history of this time. Now, no question,
the Lord had blessed Miriam and Aaron with the spirit of prophecy.
They did prophesy at different times, but now the prophet, the
leader, was Moses, and they were jealous of that. That's why the
Lord said, that's why Miriam and Aaron said, has the Lord
spoken only by Moses? Oh no, he's spoken by us too.
They wanted some of that esteem that Moses had. That's what they
wanted. They just couldn't serve the
Lord with the opportunity that the Lord gave them. They wanted
Moses' place. They wanted the esteem that came
to Moses. And the poor skin color has absolutely
nothing to do with this. They've known for a long time
who Moses married when Moses came back to Egypt. I mean, he
hadn't seen his brother and sister in 40 years. Don't you reckon,
they said, what have you been up to these 40 years? You got
married, you have children, you have grandchildren, you know
what? And he told them, they knew who he'd married for a long
time. They chose to make an issue of it now because they knew somebody
in Israel had a problem with him marrying somebody from another
skin color, and they wanted to get those people on their side
against Moses. All this is is a smokescreen. They wanted to have Moses' place
as leader in Israel. That was the point. Now here's
what I want to focus on. I just wanted to kind of deal
with that smokescreen very quickly. Here's what I want to focus on.
It's the question that Miriam and Moses ask because this question
is the heart of the gospel in this passage. Has the Lord indeed
spoken only by Moses. Now, you know, normally we think
of Moses as a type of the law, don't we? And that's true. He
is a type and picture of the law. But if you look over at
Deuteronomy chapter 18, I'm going to show you this. Moses is also
a picture of Christ. In Deuteronomy 18 and verse 18, I will raise them up a prophet.
Notice that's capital P. This is somebody's name, prophet. From among their brethren, like
unto thee, I'll put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. Now that prophet, the prophet's
the Lord Jesus Christ, and Moses is a picture of him. Now the
Lord said that when Christ, the prophet, when he comes, he'll
speak everything that the Father commands him to speak. Christ,
the prophet, is coming to speak everything that God commands
concerning the salvation of God's people. He's come to speak of
everything concerning righteousness, mercy, peace, grace, justice. He's come to say how it is that
God is pleased to save sinners. He won't hold anything back.
He'll speak everything that God commands Him to speak. Now, I want to know what He says.
I want to know what He has to say, don't you? Well, quickly,
let me give you eight things that Christ, the prophet, says
concerning the salvation of his people. First, if you look, it's
Psalm 40. Psalm 40, you might wanna mark
that place. We'll turn back to it a few times here. Psalm 40. The first thing Christ, the prophet,
has spoken of is God's righteousness. Psalm 40, verse six. This is
Christ speaking. He says, nobody else can say
this but Christ, our Savior, in verse six. Sacrifice and offering,
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Then said
I, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book is written of me.
I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my
heart. Now this is none other than Christ
our Savior speaking, and listen, look what he says, verse 9. I
have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Though
I've not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest, I have not hid
thy righteousness within my heart. Christ the preacher has come,
he's spoken of God's righteousness. Christ the Savior, the preacher,
the prophet, he didn't come to tell men what they can do to
be holy or what they can do to be righteous. He's not coming
to give us a pep talk. You gotta do better, you gotta
make a better effort at this thing, at being righteous. You
gotta buckle down. I actually heard a man say that
recently, false prophet. You gotta buckle down. This is
a pep talk. Christ the prophet is not an
infomercial salesman. He's not selling some detergent
that'll take the filthy rags of our righteousness and make
them less offensive. He's not coming to talk about
our righteousness in any way, shape, size, or form, other than
to say they're not good enough. What does He declare? Thy righteousness. He's come to declare the righteousness
of God. That perfect, absolute, white,
holy righteousness of God. The righteousness that was produced
by God the Son in the flesh. The righteousness that Christ
produced by his obedience to God's law. He obeyed it in every
jot and every tittle. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed
what true righteousness really is. I tell our folks at home
this all the time. Righteousness is not a thing.
Righteousness is not a legal state of being. Righteousness
is a person. Lord Jesus Christ personified.
If you want to see righteousness, you look at Christ. He's righteousness
personified. Look over at Romans chapter 3.
Christ our Savior is the righteousness of God. He's the righteousness
that God will accept. And He is the righteousness.
His righteousness is imputed to everyone who believes. Not us. Who believes. Romans
chapter 3 verse 19. Now we know that what things
shall the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. The law is never going to tell
anybody you did good enough. The law is always going to say
we're guilty. Therefore, since that's true
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now,
the righteousness of God without the law, without your effort
to obey the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ." This thing, this righteousness of God, is accomplished
by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, to obey God's law perfectly. It's by the faith of Christ,
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. being
justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him, which what? believeth in Jesus, not him who
obeys the law, not him who observes the ceremonies, him that believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness is received by
faith, by believing Christ, by trusting that he is all that
it takes for me to be righteous. All it takes is for me to be
found in him. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to
obey not even one law in order to be righteous. Christ accomplished
it all. Christ is our righteousness.
But now, how is anybody going to believe on Him if they haven't
heard of Him? And how is anybody going to hear
without a preacher? So you know what God did? He
sent His Son to be the preacher. He sent His Son to declare His
righteousness. And if you look at Psalm 71,
here is the mark of every one of God's servants. Every one
of God's servants who's ever come before or after Christ our
Savior, they've all had the same message. It's not our acts of
obedience that makes us righteous. Christ is our righteousness. Psalm 71 verse 15. My mouth shall
show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day
for I know not the numbers thereof, I will go in the strength of
the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only." Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the only righteousness
that there is. And in every one of God's servants
you ever find anywhere, this is his message. Christ is our
righteousness. Now you rest in him, he's our
righteousness. All right, number two, look back at Psalm 40. Christ
the prophet has spoken of God's faithfulness. I guess I should have marked
that too. I didn't turn to the wrong place. Psalm 40. In verse five, he says, I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart, and I have declared
thy faithfulness. Now again, Christ the Savior
did not come preaching, giving a pep talk, to inspire people
to be more faithful. Without question, we ought to
be more faithful. It's easy to find ways to point
out how we should be more faithful. But that's not his message. He
says, I have declared thy faithfulness I think great is thy faithfulness. When I'm not as faithful as I
should be, here's the comfort and assurance of my salvation.
God is. He's always faithful. Our salvation,
the security of our salvation, is not dependent upon the strength
of our faith. Now there is never, never, never,
never an excuse for weak faith. But thankfully, our salvation
does not depend on the strength of our faith. It depends on God's
faithfulness and God's character. He is faithful that promised. He'll also do it. Now Christ
saved sinners. He came to save sinners. And
if Christ has saved you, He's revealed Himself to you. He's
given you faith that you can trust Him. He's given you faith
that you just can't trust anyone but Christ. You're going to go through some
dark valleys between here and there. I mean, you're going to
go through some tough places, some tough nights. And this is
what I can promise you. Christ is the one saved you.
He will be faithful to bring you through every one of those
dark valleys, through every one of those dark nights, through
every one of those broken hearts and bring you all the way to
glory with Him and make you just like Him. He'll do it because
He's faithful. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. Now this I know from reading
God's word, God will be faithful to himself. He will. He'll be
faithful to his character. Everything he does will be holy,
it'll be just, it'll be merciful, it'll be gracious, it'll be right,
because that's God's character. He'll be true to his character.
He'll never violate his character. If God's made a promise, he'll
keep it, because he can't violate his character. God is going to
be faithful to His Word. Now you take this Word, and you
hang your soul on it, because God's going to be faithful to
keep it. He'll not let a semi-colon of it drop to the ground. Not
a semi-colon. God's going to be faithful to
His covenant. The Father, the Son, and the
Heir to the covenant of grace, where the Father promised to
give these people to you. You obey the law for them. You
suffer and die. You shed your blood to put their
sin away. I'll bring him into my presence.
I'll accept him in you. God's going to be faithful to
that covenant. Why bother going out places preaching? Why bother? Why bother? Because
God's faithful to His covenant. He's going to save his people
and please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And he's going to do it because of his covenant. God's
going to be faithful to his promises. And you take every promise of
this book, and you just rest in it. Before the service, Shelby
and I spent a good deal of time talking about just one promise.
The Lord will provide. Now the Lord's going to provide.
The Lord's going to provide. How often do we gotta see Him
do it? He's gonna be faithful to His promises. Every one of
them. Let those promises of God comfort your heart when you don't
understand and you can't see a way out. And you can't see
how is it that God's doing right here. How is it that God's bringing
good out of this? How is it? Doesn't matter if
you see it or not. Hang on to His promise. He's
going to keep it. He's going to be faithful to
his promises. The father's going to be faithful to his son. One of these days, if I hear
this one more time, I need to not stop on these channels that
have these infomercial salesmen on them. It's like a car wreck. I just, I don't know what to
do. Anyway, if I hear one more time, that God loves you, but
He's going to send you to hell if you don't do something for
Him. I'm just going to run screaming into the night. I mean, what kind of father is
it? I ask you, really, what kind
of father is it who slaughters his son? who humiliates him and
slaughters him and makes him suffer like no man has ever suffered
before or since. What kind of father does that
to his son and then doesn't give him what he purchased by it?
I mean, I ask you. I don't blame somebody for not
trusting that God. I mean, if that's the God that
you preach, of course you've got to beg people to come down
to you. You're not trustworthy. God's going to be faithful to
His Son. Who is it Christ died for? Every last one of them will
appear in glory. The Father's going to be faithful
to His Son, to give Him what He purchased by His blood. And
God will be faithful to His people. The only reason that you could
really think of, if you believe Christ, that one day you didn't
believe And now you do. Something happened between there,
didn't it? You heard the preaching of the gospel. God gave you faith
to believe. Now you believe Him. Well, the only explanation that
you can possibly come up with that God would reveal Himself
to you and save your sinful soul is this. God's faithful. He's faithful to His people.
He chose you in all of eternity. He's going to be faithful to
redeem you by the blood of His Son. He's gonna be faithful to
call you by the preaching of his gospel. His spirit will be
faithful to give you life and faith in Christ, and he'll be
faithful to keep you to the end. That's what we believe, isn't
it? God's faithful. Now hold fast the profession
of your faith. Don't quit. Don't quit. I've seen too many people quit.
Don't quit. Why? Why does the writer to the
Hebrews say don't quit? for he is faithful to the promise.
Don't quit, because you already know how this thing's gonna end.
Don't quit. All right, here's the third thing.
Christ the prophet has spoken of God's salvation. Verse 10,
he says, I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. Now again, Christ the prophet
didn't come telling people what you can do to save yourself.
He did not come to tell people what they could do to make themselves
more savable. He came declaring thy salvation. He came declaring God's salvation. It's Christ who declares how
it is God always purposed to save His people from their sin.
It wasn't by their obedience to the law. It wasn't through
those ceremonies. The law was just given to show
us how desperately we needed Christ. We're guilty, we need
somebody to take our guilt away from us. We're sinners, we need
somebody to pay for our sin. We've got this filth of sin,
we need somebody to come and cleanse us from the filth of
our sin. That's why God gave the law, to show us how full
of sin we are and how much we need Christ. Christ came declaring
that salvation is of the Lord. And it's all in Christ. It's
all in Him. You've all, I know, heard the
famous illustration, or the outline, excuse me, of the message. I
believe Charles Spurgeon is the one that first preached it. Salvation,
he says, is off of the Lord in its origination. God's the one
that purposed salvation for His people. And you know where He
purposed it? in Christ. Christ the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. It's always been in Christ. Salvation
of the Lord in its execution. Somebody had to come and God
purposed it in eternity. Somebody had to come accomplish
it in time. Who was that? Christ our Savior. It pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. It was accomplished. The salvation
that God purposed is accomplished by the sacrifice of Christ. Then
salvation is of the Lord in its application. So the Father chose
a people to save. The Son came and redeemed those
people. But when is God going to let them in on it? How are
they going to know about that, huh? When were you saved? You
didn't believe in Christ. When were you saved? You can
say it with the Apostle Paul. I was saved when it pleased God
to reveal His Son in me. When it pleased God to reveal
Christ to me. Oh, I knew the doctrine. I mean,
from the time I've understood language, I understood the doctrines
of grace. I mean, I've always understood
the doctrines of grace. But I didn't know the Lord. There's
a whole great big difference between knowing the doctrines
of grace and knowing the Lord. When God's pleased to reveal
Christ in you, it's been applied. What God purposed, what Christ
purchased, now has been applied. Salvation is of the Lord in its
sustaining power. Have you ever thought about yourself?
About your circumstances? And think, I'm never going to
make it. Paul says, now the crown is given to those who finish
the course. I'm not going to finish. I ran, back when I had
a back that could do things, I ran two marathons. And I was
in the Detroit Marathon, I was running the Detroit Marathon.
And it went through a pretty bad section of town, all these
folks are out there, you know they're, I mean, 8 o'clock in
the morning, they're drinking beer and just having a big old
party. And I mean to tell you, I mean
I was 10, 11 miles, I was done, I mean I was toast. I'm not so
sure I should quit at least in this section of town. So I just
kept walking. And it's a boy comes out there. He's got a he's
got a bud long neck in his hand and he starts running. He said,
Come on, brother. You got to keep going. You got to keep going.
And I ran with him. He said, You got a long way to
go. Have you thought I can't make
it? I mean, if you just I'm toast, I can't make it. Salvation. is not of you and me and our
power to finish the course. Salvation is of the Lord in its
sustaining power. It's Christ who will keep you. The Apostle Peter said, we're
kept by the power of God. Not by our power, by the power
of God through faith, by looking to Christ. And then Brother Spurgeon
said, salvation is of the Lord in its ultimate glory. Oh, what a place heaven will
be, huh? But the glory of that place is not the place. It's
not pearly gates and streets of gold and big old mansions.
Salvation is of the Lord in its ultimate glory. The ultimate
glory of eternity is to be made just like Christ and to worship
Him perfectly, face to face. Salvation is in Christ, isn't
it? It's all accomplished by Christ
and it will be finished by Christ. That's called salvation. And
that's the salvation Christ came to preach. Salvation that's been accomplished
by Christ, that's a whole lot better than salvation meaning
you've got to be born a Jew, which would rule out all of us.
And then you've got to keep the law and you've got the ceremonies. That's pretty depressing. But
if salvation's all accomplished in Christ, that's good news. Then here's the fourth thing.
Christ the prophet has spoken of God's love. Verse 10, he says,
I have not concealed thy lovingkindness. Again, Christ the prophet's not
coming telling us, no, you gotta love God. You've got to love
God. He's not coming to talk to us
about our cold, fickle, wavering love for God. What has Christ
come to tell? Of God's love for sinners. How God loves his people. Now
if you know Christ, you do love him. You do, I know. It is not
just words for me to say, I love the Lord. You do too, I know
you do. You love the Lord. But why do we love him? Because
he first loved us. And he loved us from all eternity.
when he knew what we'd be, before Adam was ever created, God knew
what we'd be and he loved us anyway. The thrice holy God has the capacity
to love sinners. He said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. Now God's love means something.
I've loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn you. I've drawn you to my son. Just
like we only speak of Christ's righteousness, because that's
the only righteousness that there is, God's preachers will only
speak of God's love. Because that's the only real
love that there is. And here's the proof that God loves sinners. He loves His people. That He
sent His Son into the world to save them by His sacrifice for
their sin. Herein, here's love, John said. Not that we love God. We ought
to love God. What's not to love? Not that
we love God, but that He loved us. And here's the proof of it. He sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. I tell you, if you want to see
the love of God, go to Calvary. See the Lord Jesus Christ willingly
lay down His life for His people. because he loves them. That's
the only way they can be redeemed. He must be sacrificed for their
sin. See him suffer and die for sin,
because that's what God's justice demands. There must be death
for sin. Greater love has no man than
this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. That's
what the Savior did. Now contrary to what we hear
from seemingly every corner, Christ did not die for every
son of Adam. You know, people say, and I know
it sounds good to human logic, God loves everybody. Oh, God
loves everybody. Since God loves everybody, Christ
died for everybody. Because God just wants to save
everybody. God just wants to save you. Won't
you believe Him? Won't you trust Him? Won't you
fill in the blank, whatever, who they give you to jump through?
Won't you do that? Because God loves you and wants
to save you. They make it sound like a sappy love. It's a sappy emotion, isn't it?
But my friends, that's not true. Christ did not die for everybody
because God doesn't love everybody. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, ought to put an end to all that theology. Christ
died for God's elect, and only God's elect, because God loves
them, and God's love means something. If Christ died for people that
God loves, he loved them, he loved them enough to die for
them, but he's gonna send them to hell anyway. then the love
of Christ is worthless. Don't talk to me about that kind
of love if you would comfort my heart through this journey
or blow, because that kind of love means nothing if God loves
me but will send me to hell anyway. And we cannot imagine, we can't
begin to imagine the terrors of hell, to be separated from
God. But God's love, like I said,
means something. So if Christ died for His elect,
and only His elect, then those people shall be saved. Their debts paid, so they must
be saved. God's justice demands they be
saved, because the blood of Christ paid their debt. And they must
be glorified, because the love of God means something. You know
what the love of God means? Eternal redemption for His people.
Now God's people love to hear about that kind of love. Sinners,
that's who loves to hear about that kind of love. Tell me about
how God can love sinners. Because he sees me in his son.
Tell me about that love. That's the love Christ came to
declare to his people. Then fifthly, Christ the prophet
has spoken of God's truth. At the end of verse 10 he says,
I've not concealed thy love and kindness and thy truth from the
great congregation. Now the great congregation, that's
God's elect, His people. And they're the ones who know
the truth. And you know why they know the
truth? Because God's been pleased to reveal it to them. Look over
at John chapter 18, and that's the only reason. The only reason
they can know it is because God's been pleased to reveal it to
them. John chapter 18. Verse 37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? And Jesus answered, Thou sayest
that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? Now a better question
for Pilate to have asked is, Who is truth? But you know why
he asked, What is truth? He didn't know it. And there
he is standing right in front of him. Truth personified. He
doesn't see it. Because it's not being revealed
to him. And what Pilate's really asking is, alright, but is this
truth really worth dying for? Yes it is. Because the death
of Christ, His bloody, awful sacrifice, is the one and only
way a holy God can show mercy to sinners like you and me. In
order for God to show mercy to you and me, He's got to give
Christ the punishment that we deserve as our substitute. That's
the only way salvation can be accomplished in truth. Any other
way of salvation sweeps sin under the rug. Now maybe that's fine. Maybe you and me can't see it
under the rug, but God does. God does. The only way salvation
can be accomplished in truth is that Christ has made sin for
His people. He's made guilty, and then He
suffers and dies, what God's justice demands. Now Christ says
He'll come and tell people of thy truth. Well, God's truth
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way God can be true
to His character and be both just and merciful is in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way God can put away
sin truthfully is by punishing Christ as a sacrifice for the
sin of His people. The only way God can demonstrate
His love for sinners is the sacrifice of Christ. The truth of God is
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can only see it in Him. Now,
I know you can see things about God in other places other than
Christ, but you can't see the truth of God. You can see God's
power and God's majesty in creation. I mean, I just love to look at
God's creation. You can go out to some of these national parks
and see the wonders of nature. God created this just by speaking. You can see something of God's
power and majesty in that, can't you? But you can't see the truth
of God. You can see God's wisdom in creation,
how He made things to work together. You can see God's wisdom in the
events of providence, how God has arranged things to happen
the way that they have. You can see God's wisdom. God's
so wise. But you can't see the truth of
God there. No, God's goodness, His mercy, His grace, His love,
His justice, His truth is only seen in Christ. So in case this is the last time
I ever preach to you, let me tell you one more time, look
to Christ. If you would know God, if you
would see how God saves sinners, look to Christ. All right, here's
the sixth thing. Christ the prophet has spoken
of imputation of sin. Look at John 19, verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now the Savior's not saying he's
thirsting for water. He's thirsting for righteousness. Now why would the holy God say
such a thing? I thirst. Here's why. Because he had truly been made
sin for his people. He truly took the sin of His
people away from them and He made it His. The guilt was His. The shame was His. Everything
about sin, except the commission of it, is Christ's. And now He's
putting that sin away by His sacrifice, by paying the price
for that sin. What the Savior is telling us
is how He's truly suffering for the sin of His people. So much
so that when he was made sin, he thirsted for righteousness. In Matthew 27, verse 46, the
Savior cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now,
the Savior did not ask this question for his own information. From
eternity, he knew what was happening on this day. He asked this question
so you and I would know something. He is truly suffering for sin.
The father has turned his back on him. The father has removed
his loving, gracious presence. He doesn't even call him my father
at this time. He calls him my God. The judge
is judging him and punishing him with everything that the
sin of his people deserves. You know, hell is being separated
from God. What Christ is telling us here
when he cried, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He's
telling us I've suffered the punishment that you deserve,
so that you never will." You take those two statements from
the cross, and this is what you see. The Savior is declaring
how sinners are made righteous. For He, God the Father, had made
Him, God the Son, sin for us. Him who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's how sinners
are made righteous. The sin of his people is given
to him, and his righteousness is given to his people. Then
seventh, Christ the prophet has spoken and told his people that
their salvation is complete. Verse 30, John verse 19. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. that this cry is heard in heaven, in earth, in hell,
throughout all the generations, throughout eternity. It is finished. I ask you tonight, do you hear
the Savior's cry? It's finished. It's finished. There's nothing left to do. God
requires nothing of you. Everything that God requires
of you has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
is complete. It's finished. The great transaction
is done. The debt has been paid. It's
finished. Now come rest in Christ. Come
rest. And you only hear that sweet
message from Christ the prophet. That's the only, every other
message tells you get busy working. The only one that tells you the
work is finished, now rest, is Christ. Now the last thing, look
at John chapter 7. Christ the prophet has spoken
of spiritual rest from the law for his people. John 7 verse
37. In that last day, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. Now the question is, are you
thirsty? Remember when the Savior said, I thirst? He thirsted for
righteousness. Are you thirsty for righteousness?
Yeah, well, we thirst. We have a thirst for H2O. It's
our body's way of telling us, you don't have enough water in
your body. You need to drink. Well, are
you thirsty for righteousness? Because God the Holy Spirit has
showed you, you don't have any at all. It's not just that you're
a little low, you don't have any. Are you thirsty for righteousness? Then come to Christ. He Himself
said, if you're thirsty, come. He's already thirsted for His
people, so that they never will. Come to Christ. He says, I'll
give you a fountain of living water. flowing from your belly.
How can you ever thirst again if you've got a fountain of water
flowing from your belly? One last scripture, Matthew chapter
11. Verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Now are you weary? I mean spiritually, religiously.
Are you weary? Are you tired? Tired of trying
and failing to please God? Are you tired of trying to do
enough to make God happy with you and knowing you haven't done
it? Are you tired of trying to obey God's law and not being
able to do it? Then the Savior says, come rest
in Him. He's already obeyed the law for
His people. Now come rest in Him. Now make
no mistake about it, this is a command from God Almighty.
Come to Christ. Right now, right where you sit
in your heart, you come to Christ. I got this from Brother Fortner.
I wish I had nickel for every time I repeated it. That's a
commandment. But it sure sounds like a sweet
invitation to me, doesn't it, you? That's a sweet invitation
to a sinner. come to Christ. That's the message
of Christ our Savior. The message of the gospel that
Christ came to preach and he's given us to preach. It's both
true and it's sweet. And that's the gospel I want
us to hear and I want us to believe. I pray the Lord bless that to
you. I thank you all for having me, for your attentiveness. I
pray the Lord's richest blessing on you. All right, Rex.