Okay, well, as I said, we'll
have a break from Matthew's Gospel. I don't know for how long, but
we'll come and look at Psalm 126 this morning, and particularly
verse 3. You know, the situation in which
we're living is and has been such a shock to society. The very foundations, I think
it's difficult to overestimate how serious is the damage that
is being done. The foundation of this world,
of our economy, of our society, is being absolutely fundamentally
shaken and it will take generations to recover from it. Will it ever
recover from it? It really is such a serious thing. And if you live in this world,
and this world is all your hope and all your aspiration, the
job you can do, the business you can build, the family you
can raise, the places you can go, the bucket list things that
you can tick, if that is it, if that is it, your entire hopes
depend on this society recovering from this dreadful shock that
has befallen it at the moment. And that's a terrible thing. I mean, if that's where all your
hopes lie, You haven't got much of a foundation, have you? You
really haven't. It's a very fragile situation.
Look at those who were in their prime recently. The prime of
their medical careers, or whatever. And in the prime of life, and
at the peak of their careers, they got this virus and they've
been taken. They've died from it. And from
other things, because death happens all the time. Death happens all
the time. We live in a world of death.
We are mortal creatures. And if this is all your hope,
then what a tragic thing it is. What a shallow tissue it is of
support that you have. But God, the true God, speaks
comfort to his people. Who are his people? You say,
you're very arrogant, talking about yourself as one of his
people. There's only one basis. There's only one basis for the
assurance of faith. Don Faulkner used to say this.
There's only one basis for the assurance of faith, that is,
Faith itself. Faith. You believe. You believe. How was it that the Thessalonians,
how did Paul know that they were the elect of God? Because when
he preached the Gospel, they believed it. They turned to God
from idols. He says, knowing, beloved, your
election of God. Knowing that you're chosen by
God. How? Through sanctification of the
Spirit and your belief of the truth. Not the belief of religion.
Not the belief of false Gospels and false Jesuses that are all
around. The belief of the message of
this book. That's what it is. That's the
people of God, and God comforts his people. God speaks to his
people, and God comforts his people. What does he say through
Isaiah to the preachers? Isaiah 40 verse 1, you would
think, if you go to half the churches that there are, that
he said, rebuke, rebuke, afflict my people. No, he said, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, says the Lord. Comfort with the blessings
of salvation. with the hope of eternal glory,
that we're just passing through this world, we're just passing,
this isn't our home, our hopes are not here, we're just passing
through. Eternal glory is the hope of
the people of God. Now look at our text, it's verse
3. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. He has done great things for
us, First of all, what great things has God done for us? And
then, who is the us? For whom has he done these great
things? And with what result has he done these things? The
context of this psalm is probably The return of the Jewish people
from the Babylonian captivity, you know they'd gone there and
it was a 70 years captivity and many of them had come, you know
how long, it doesn't take long does it for people to settle
into a new environment and to make a new life for themselves
and many of them had become completely Babylonian, they had completely
imbibed its culture and settled into its ways and their thoughts
of going back, well why do we want to go back there? We don't
live there anymore, it's not where we live. And yet they had
been recovered from Babylonian captivity and when the Lord returned,
again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Is this really happening? Am I dreaming? This is so unlikely
to happen. You know, is it really happening?
Remember that it had been prophesied. Isaiah, I think it's 45, speaks
of Cyrus. Is it 200 years before Cyrus
came as the Medo-Persian king who said that the Jews should
go back and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem? It was
prophesied by Isaiah that God would set up Cyrus. Cyrus, that
great emperor, is called God's servant. It was fulfilled in
the days of Daniel. Daniel chapter 5 talks about
it, you know, in Belshazzar's feast, and the Medes and the
Persians, Darius coming in and overthrowing them. It was executed
on the command of Cyrus in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and
the days of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. This was a wonderful
thing that God did. The captivity, as he had promised,
came to an end, and they returned, and the most unlikely The most
unlikely of emperors, Cyrus, Medo-Persian emperor, said, I
want the Jews to go back and build the house of God in Jerusalem. How incredible. It's God that
does all these things. God rules in the affairs of men. God controls what happens in
this world. You know, we don't stand back
and fatalistically accept what's happening. We have our views
on it, and we fight against that which we think is wrong. But
be in no doubt, it's all accomplishing God's eternal purposes, which
are the overthrow of the kingdom of this world, the triumph of
the kingdom of God, This is just another step on the way to that,
who knows how soon it will be. So no, God is in control of everything,
just as He was in control of their return from captivity.
But listen, what a great thing it was for them, they were like
those that dreamed when they came back to Zion, the captivity
of Zion, Zion the people of God. How much greater How much greater,
not Cyrus, but how much greater that Christ should come to release
his elect from the bondage of sin. How much greater. You know
there's a captivity in Babylon from which they were released
by Cyrus. But there's a captivity of the elect of God in the bondage
of sin, and He comes and releases them by all that He has done.
He came for that specific purpose. To what? To save His people from
their sins. That's why He was called Saviour,
Jesus. save his people from their sins.
And verse three summarizes it for us. The Lord hath done great
things for us, whereof we are glad. As soon as I got this text,
I couldn't stop that chorus going through my mind. He has done
great things. He has done praise. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy
name. He has done great things. And when I asked Sam for some
hymns, that was the first thing that came to her mind as well.
It's going round my head even now. So I want us to think about
the US. He has done great things for
us. whereof we are glad. Who is it? Who is the us? Well,
in the psalm, it is Zion, literally, i.e., the people of God, the
Israelites, the people of Judah, the people to whom the promise
to David was given, that there would always be a king until
Messiah came. You know, however bad the kings
were, and you read the accounts in Kings, and there were some
terrible, shocking things that were done, because they were
such sinners. especially with the Israeli tribes in the north,
but the tribe of Judah itself had its fair share of bad kings
and corruption, and hence they went into captivity. It's Zion
literally, those people that God had favored, but we apply
it to Zion spiritually. God has His spiritual Zion, of
which that, like so much all of the Old Testament, was just
a picture. It is What is it? It is the innumerable multitude
graciously blessed by God with salvation. The innumerable multitude. A multitude which no man can
number. God knows exactly the number,
but it's an innumerable multitude that's known only to God. It's
chosen out of all humanity, and when were they chosen? We read
it in Ephesians, before the beginning of time. Look over there just
now. Ephesians chapter 1, look at verse 3. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, according as He hath chosen us in Him 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, to the praise of the glory of His grace,
wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace. This is the Zion of God, the
elect of God. Oh, I don't like that word, elect.
say so many religious people. How dare you say that God makes
a difference? I'll tell you how I dare say
it, because God has declared in His Word that He makes a difference. God is sovereign, and God makes
a difference, and God reveals His truth to some, and he chooses
to withhold it from others. Because, as we saw last week
in Matthew's Gospel, because you have hidden, so it seemed
good to you that you have hidden these things from the worldly
wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. to babes, to those
that the world regards as having no sense, no discernment of its
own. No. God is sovereign in those
to whom He reveals His truth. It's the multitude that He chose
from all humanity before the beginning of time. You see, whom
he did foreknow, we read in Romans 8.29, whom he did foreknow in
electing grace. Foreknow doesn't mean gazed into
his crystal ball, it means set his love upon them before the
beginning of time. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his Son. This Zion, this people, this
us, this we, are predestinated by the God who is sovereign over
all things to be made like the image of his Son." In natural
Nature, we're no different to all of the rest, as Ephesians
chapter 2 tells us, where we are by nature children of wrath,
even as others, because we're sinners, and sin deserves the
wrath of God. God hates sin. God is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity. He cannot look upon sin. But
as children of wrath, even as the others, He by His Spirit
graciously brings His people to feel their ruined condition
as sinners before His justice. Not all have exactly the same
depth of feeling and of heartbreak over that sin, but all are brought
to feel it. A sinner is a sacred thing, the
Holy Ghost has made him so. They're all made, all his people
in time are made to be conscious, to some degree, of the holiness
of God. But God is majestic. that God
dwells in unapproachable light. Who can find out God? We were
reading in Job last week. Who can fathom out God? God is
infinite. God is above all things. God
controls all of things, conscious of His holiness to some degree,
and the sinfulness of man. How that sin is not just a kind
of, well, that's the way it is, but how it is an absolute affront
to the nature of God. How everything that we are by
nature is contrary. to the holy, perfect, pure being
of God. How we are utterly, utterly,
by nature, incompatible with the being of God. You talk about
going to heaven when you die. As a sinner, unredeemed, unforgiven,
uncleansed, you cannot be in the presence of one who is holy.
To say it's like oil and water is to totally underestimate the
degree of incompatibility that there is between holy God and
sinful man. To be given a feeling, to some
degree, of that sinfulness, and of the helpless estate, that
however much we might try, it is such a futile thing to try. to be righteous as God requires
righteousness. Such a futile thing. We're in
a helpless state as sinners. We're guilty, guilty before God. As the one who knows he's guilty
and doesn't try to plead his innocence when he knows he's
guilty, it says in Romans chapter 3, that every mouth might be
stopped. When we hear the law of God,
as those spoken to by the Spirit of God, every mouth might be
stopped and all the world declared guilty before God. To know the
justice of God, that God himself must convict of sin, to feel
that conviction to some degree, to take God's side against ourself
and say, yes, that's me. I am that sinner. God be merciful
to me, that sinner, for I can plead nothing other than your
mercy. I can plead none of my own good,
my own works, my own repentance. I can't plead any of it. I can
only plead your mercy. Dear Lord, please have mercy
on me. Like that publican in the little
parable that Jesus told, praying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. We're distinguished. The us and
the we are distinguished from the generality of people in this
respect, in that the generality of people in this world, they
have no feeling of sin, none whatsoever. As far as they're
concerned, there is no need for anything like the justice of
God. Why would we need the justice? We get on perfectly well. we
don't need God interfering with us, leave us alone, we're quite
happy, we're quite happy with our own standards of goodness,
oh look at how good so many people are being, oh how wonderful,
and how much they're going so much extra distance in being
kind to others, and no doubt there is a lot of kindness being
shown, but nevertheless, The heart of man is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Even the heart
of the best of people is desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. No, no. They've got no feeling
of sin, the world in general. Their view of life and death
and the afterlife has no concept of divine justice, because why?
They believed Satan's lie. What is Satan's lie? As it was
to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Has God really said? Has he said? sowing doubt on the truth of
what God has said. Has God really said? Yes, He
has. God has said, in the day that you sin, you shall surely
die. Has God said that you shall die? God has said that we might die.
No, God has said you shall surely die in the day that you eat thereof. But the world has believed that
lie, that the justice of God does not matter, that there is
no accounting in eternity for sin and for righteousness. There
is no accounting of it. But for spiritual Zion, for the
elect of God in this world, children of wrath even as others, but
awakened by the quickening of the Holy Spirit, for the children
of God in this world, spiritual Zion, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians
1 verse 9, we had the sentence of death in ourselves. That's
conviction of sin, of knowing what it's really like, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the
dead. This is where our trust is. We've
got the sentence of death in ourselves when it comes to eternity,
but we trust in God, not in ourselves. There's a burden of sin that
we feel, as Bunyan's pilgrim, Christian, felt that burden of
sin. There's a futile striving for
righteousness acceptable to God and never being attained. There's
a hearing of the word of God, condemn us. hearing what it says,
hearing how it condemns us justly. There's an agreeing with God,
that we deserve banishment from God. This is all the work of
the Spirit in the us, in the we. All by revelation from God. All of it. You see, it must be
by revelation. It's not by intellect. You know
what it says again and again, born not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, nor by tradition, nor by any of these
things. How are the people of God born
by the will of God? That's how. They're born by the
will of God. brought to know the truth. It's
all by revelation from God, all preparing the ground for the
gospel to come, the good news to come, the preaching of Christ
and all that he is and all that he has done. When the Gentiles
heard it, it says in Acts 13 verse 48, when the Gentiles heard
this, that Paul had given up trying to preach to Jews and
he was going to the Gentiles because they rejected so strongly
the gospel that he preached. He said, I'm going to the Gentiles.
And when the Gentiles heard this and the gospel that he preached,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And listen,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Which
were the ones that believed? The ones that had a nature to
believe? No, no. What does it say? What does the
Word of God say? Those that were ordained by God
to eternal life believed. Do you have a similar testimony
of the Lord's dealings with your soul? Do you have reason to believe
that you are numbered with the us, with the we, for whom the
Lord has done great things? You say, not now. But you might be, you might be,
if he should reveal Christ in you. That's what happened to
Paul. Christ was revealed in him. When
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, to
reveal Christ in me. It might be, it might be. You
know, he might just speak to you. He might just powerfully
come and show you something. of His being, of His power, of
His glory, of His justice, of His gospel, of His Christ, and
He might give you a heart to believe Him. So what are the
great things that He has done for us? What great things do
the citizens of Zion attribute to God's provision for them?
Consider the provision of the triune God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit for Zion in the covenant of grace. the provision for all
sin and failure, the provision for the falling short of the
divine standard of holiness. Before the beginning of time,
in the triune Godhead, the Father, Son and Spirit, the one God in
three persons, covenanting together that of all mankind there would
be a people that would be chosen, that the Father would choose,
that the Son would come and redeem, that the Spirit would quicken
to eternal life. These are certain, sure mercies. We read of them in Isaiah 55.
In Isaiah 55, There's a call. Do you remember,
we've been looking at, like last week, we were looking at, come
unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden. And there's
a call that goes out, and it's not to everybody without exception,
it's to those who labour and are heavy laden with sin. And
there's a call that goes out in Isaiah 55 and verse one, ho,
ho, listen, everyone that thirsts, This isn't a call to everybody,
it's a call to those who thirst. Thirst for what? Jesus said in
the Sermon on the Mount, Come ye to the waters. And he
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine
and milk, without money and without price. Buy without money, because
that's the gospel. Buy what you need, without money
and without price. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, pursuing the things of this world? And
your labour for that which satisfies not, because you're putting your
wages in pockets with holes. in pockets, in bags which have
holes in. Hearken diligently unto me, to
God, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, listen, listen,
people, listen, and come unto me. Here and your soul shall
live, your dead soul, dead in trespasses and sins, which is
destined for the judgment. It is appointed to man to die
once and then the judgment. Here and your soul shall live.
and I will make, this is God speaking, listen, listen, listen,
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David, the sure mercies of David, certain, this which God
is speaking about, it's not an offer, it's not an offer, a chance
of being saved from sin, if only you will take, it's not that,
I'm not preaching an offer of salvation. This isn't the free
offer of the gospel. There's no such thing. People
who tell you that are liars. It's not in the Word of God.
It's the sure mercies of David. It's certain, absolutely. You
think about the fragility of deals in this world. There are
a lot of people now in this lockdown who've been in the process of
trying to sell their house or to buy another, and how fragile
it all is, and how, despite huge sums of money, it's all about
to fall to pieces and not be completed. How fragile are the
deals in this world, even when people have got the best of intentions
not to defraud one another? It's dependent on human strength,
on human wisdom, on human honesty and integrity. And you know how
weak that is, and you know how frail that is, and you know how
unreliable that is. You know how many messages you
get through your electronic device, texts and emails every day, trying
to con you out of money, trying to deceive you out of this, that
or the other. That's the true state of the
human heart. Would God leave the salvation
of a sinner's soul to that? Would God leave it as a chance
open to everybody? No. He has decreed it, and so
He will certainly complete it successfully. It's the sure mercies
of David. This is a great thing that God
has done for His people. He has made their eternal state
a secure, certain thing. He has done great things for
us. God's promise to complete the
salvation of his people. What's at the basis of it? Think
of this. Great things. It's underpinned
by his love. This salvation that God has promised
is underpinned by the love of God. Hear in His love, said John,
hear in His love, not that we loved God, but that He loved
us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to
be the turning away of God's righteous anger for our sins,
for the elect that He loved. The elect that He loved, He gave
to His Son. He put the elect that He loved,
that multitude that no man can number from every tribe and tongue
and kindred, He put them in eternal union, absolute eternal union
with the Son of His love. He put them there that he might
come and stand surety for them. I have manifested thy name, says
Jesus, I have manifested thy name unto the men, the people,
which you gave me out of the world. Thine they were, they
were the fathers in love before the beginning of time. and thou
gavest them me. He gave, the father gave them
to his son. He gave the multitude of his
elect to his son to be his bride before the beginning of time.
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25. Ephesians 5 verse 25. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it, the church, with the washing of water by the word, that he
might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, any sin at all, but that it should
be holy, and without blemish. This is what God in Christ has
done for his church, for his adopted children. We've received
the adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. His friends,
he said in John 15, he said, I call you no longer servants,
but I call you friends. Why? Because I've told you everything,
all the secrets of my Father. I've told you those secrets.
How? In the gospel of His grace, the mystery of His word, which
He has revealed to those to whom He has given the faith to believe
Him. What great things He has done for us. How eternally amazing
is it not in this world of such fragile uncertainty, such hopeless
condition. You know, the very best thing
in this life happens to you. You know, you win some enormous
amount of money if you think that's the very best thing, in
some lottery or other gambling deal. and you think, oh that's
it, soul, you're made up for life now, you can buy the biggest
house and the flashiest car and go on the fanciest holidays ever,
and oh, you're going to be so, so utterly satisfied with this,
and God will say to you, you fool, this night your soul is
required of you. How long does it last? even for
the best of them, a couple of decades, three decades perhaps,
and then old age, and decay of the body, and conditions that
money cannot buy the cure of at all, and then an empty, hopeless
state, and then death, and then the judgment. That's it, that's
it, that's all that it amounts to. but for the people of God. What a great thing, how amazing
that God should do such great things for us. My eternal destiny,
my peace, think of this, my peace out of this world, the bliss
of being in glory, my happiness in intimate communion with the
God who made me and all things. It's guaranteed by God's determination
to deal with all of my sin and failure. but also to bring us
into the good of it now. He brings us into the good of
it now. All that the Father giveth me, all of the people that God
before the beginning of time gave to his son, they shall all
come to me. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. He is the one now. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who holds the key of heaven. He is the one
who holds the key, not the Pope in Rome, There's a complete misunderstanding
of that text. Not the Pope in Rome. Christ
holds the key. He tells us in Revelation that
he holds the key. He opens the door and no man
can shut it. He closes the door and no man
can open it. The key that Adam, in the Garden
of Eden, ceded to Satan. He gave it, he handed it over,
he surrendered it to Satan in the fall. now Christ has it,
he is triumphant, he is victorious, he opens and shuts. Is this not
a great thing that he has done for us who believe him? And then
think of this, the promise to complete salvation is guaranteed
not just by statements and hopes and decrees, it's guaranteed
by reality, solid physical reality. What do I mean? It's guaranteed
by His blood. It's guaranteed by His blood
for sin. Payment has been made. Payment
has been made. It's not just down to hopes and
wishes, payment has been made. Acts chapter 20 verse 28, Paul
says this to the Ephesian elders, he says, look after the church
of God, look after the church of God, because the church of
God, he, God, has purchased it with his, God's, own blood. God
has purchased the church with God's own blood. How can God
purchase the church with God's own blood? God's spirit, God
does not have blood. How can God purchase the church
with his own blood? Answer? In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. he
made all things without him was nothing made that was made and
the word became flesh the word became flesh and blood and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten
son of the father full of grace and truth why was he made flesh
i know i keep referring to it but you need you need to remember
these things look at hebrews chapter 2 again i know it's one
of my most referred to passages. But you've got to see this, you've
got to see this, that about Christ being the captain of salvation
for his people. And in verse 13, if we pick it
up there, again, I will put my trust in him and again behold
I and the children which God has given me. This is Christ
speaking. It's quoting from Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 18, the I
and the children which he's given me, and it alludes to Psalm 24,
and open the gates and the King of glory and his host shall come
in. Why, verse 14, for as much then as the children, the elect,
the people he's saving, are partakers of flesh and blood. Here it is,
you and me. If we're believers, the elect
of God, flesh and blood, he also himself, Christ, the second person
of the Trinity, very God of very God, who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but laid that glory aside for a little
while, made lower than the angels, just for a little while, made
lower than the angels, as it says earlier in this chapter.
He partook of the same flesh and blood. Why? That through
death. So that He, God, as man, could
die the death for the payment of the sins of His people that
had the power of death. He might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage and
now His people are not subject to bondage. For we're released
from that bondage of the fear of death because we know that
Christ has accomplished everything, and that His blood has been shed
to pay the penalty, the price, for the redemption of their souls.
For verily, He took not on Him the nature of angels, No, no,
the lost angels are lost forever. And those that are in glory will
never fall. But he took on him the seed,
not of Adam, but of Abraham. The seed of Abraham. The seed
of those that have the same faith as Abraham. Wherefore, in all
things it behoved him to be made like his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God. Well, there it is. What a great
thing he has done for us. We're rapidly running out of
time. It isn't to give a chance of salvation. It isn't to give
a chance, but it's that He came that He might shed His blood,
and He might thereby, absolutely guaranteed, save His people from
their sins. It is complete. It is complete. Christ, as the prophecy of Daniel
said, Daniel chapter 9, when Messiah comes, He will finish
transgression. He will make an end of sin. He
will put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He will redeem his
people from the curse of the law. What's the curse of the
law? Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written
in the book of the law of God to do them constantly without
ever failing. Cursed, if you fail in one point,
you're cursed, absolutely cursed. But Christ came and has redeemed
His people from the curse of the law. How? By being made that
curse for them in their place. He has obtained, we read again
in Hebrews, He has obtained eternal redemption for us. Not temporary
redemption, eternal redemption for us. He has redeemed us, His
people, His Zion. He has redeemed us to God by
His blood. And so, in Isaiah 51 verse 11,
it says, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with
singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. Isn't that it? He has done great
things for us, whereof we are glad. It continues in the believer's
experience. He is the Good Shepherd, now,
in this life even, while we're still beset with sin. Nevertheless,
He is the Good Shepherd who gathers us. The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He leads me in green pastures,
by the still waters. He anoints my head with oil,
my cup runs over. He gathers his people, he feeds
his people, he protects his people. Even in these days, fear not. Fear not the people of God. You
know when you read the bizarre sounding miracles in the times
of Elijah and Elisha, and you say, what's all this about? Well,
if you get nothing else from reading that, read this. God
cares in this world, providentially, for the people of his choice.
He looks after them. He's the captain to fight their
battles. He is the high priest that we need to plead our sinful
cause before the holiness of God. He is the husband of his
bride. To love his bride, to sympathize,
husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. He loves
his bride and gave himself for it. He cares for his church. He protects his church. He walks
amongst the golden candlesticks, doesn't he? Isn't that the picture
of Revelation 1? He is there now. The seven golden
candlesticks are his people in this world, the churches in this
world, and he walks amongst them. He's with us now. I'm thankful
that it says where two or three are gathered together in his
name because here there are two of us and I know there's lots
of you out there as well but there's a few of us and he says
he's here he's here in the midst the prophet to teach us he teaches
us by his under shepherds the prophet to teach us what a great
thing it is that he has done for us And then there's the Spirit's
work, and I'll be very quick closing this. But the Spirit
of God too, the Father chose, the Son redeemed, and the Spirit
quickens to newness of life. Psalm 110 verse 3, He makes His
people willing. Those who by nature are not willing
to believe, He makes His people willing in the day of His power. His disciples must come to Him,
contrary to their nature. The disciples, Matthew, you know,
you read about them coming. Nathaniel, they must come. Why
must they come? They're just basic fishermen
and tax collectors. They must come because he says
they must come. He must need to go through Samaria
because the Samaritan woman must come. His disciples must come. They must be made willing. Zacchaeus
in a tree on the road into Jericho. Zacchaeus, come down, I must
come to your house today. Mary Magdalene. Even the thief
on the cross, the dying thief cursing him with the other one,
and then the Spirit of God makes him alive and opens his eyes. And he says, no, no, no, we deserve
this. Don't you fear God? To his fellow
thief on the cross, don't you fear God? This man's done nothing
wrong. We deserve what we're getting.
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, this day you shall be with me in paradise.
The Philippian jailer, you who were dead, he has made alive. in the new birth, with a new
nature, with the gift of faith, the sight of the soul, the life
of God in the soul which was dead. Have you experienced this?
May God's Spirit pursue you until He has got you, got you, shown
you, opened your eyes, like Saul going to Damascus with the letters,
you know, that in a moment, verily, verily, said Jesus, I say unto
you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead in trespasses
and sins shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live, or that he might open your ears to hear the voice
of the Son of God. It causes us to say, As Isaiah
45 says, surely shall one say, in the Lord I have righteousness
and strength. That's it. I don't have righteousness
and strength in anything I am, but in the Lord. To know and
to feel that there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. Great things for us. I've gone
over my time, but whereof we are glad. These things can't
leave you cold and unmoved. You either hate this message
of the Gospel, or you rejoice in it. It doesn't leave you sitting
on the fence undecided. How the sinful heart rejoices
at great worldly fortune which is fleeting and corruptible.
How pathetic. But oh, how infinitely more.
The believer rejoices at heavenly treasure and says, gladly, the
hymn that we're going to sing now, it is well with my soul
what great things the Lord has done for us, whereof we are glad.