Well, our text this morning is
in Isaiah 64, but we're going to spend most of our time in
1 Corinthians chapter 2. Isaiah 64, just by way of introduction,
is a prayer for divine help. Oh, that you would rend the heavens.
This is a prayer to God. Oh, that you would do something
amazing, that you would come down. Because this is written
in the time when Israel was about, Judah was about to go into Babylonian
captivity. And this is prophesying throughout
these chapters towards the end of Isaiah, it's prophesying their
recovery, it's the coming of the Messiah, it's all of these
things which concern the triumphant kingdom of God. And here is a
prayer that God would come down and help them in their terrible
condition. It's a prayer for divine intervention. Oh, that you would come down,
that the mountains, the mountains of sin, the mountains of heresy,
the mountains of falsehood might flow down at God's presence.
Oh, think of that in this world in which we live. What mountains
of heresy and unbelief. and sin there are all around
us. But at the presence of God, those
great, hard, stubborn mountains of sin and resistance would melt
away, would flow down at your presence. And so he goes on. The need for the presence of
God, it's like Moses said in Exodus 33 when God's saying,
right, go on up into the land that I'm sending you to. And
Moses prays this. If thy presence go not with me,
carry us not up thence. If you're not going with us,
we don't want to go. Isn't that right? If you're not
going with us, we don't want to go. And this is what this
prayer is about, that God would come down and be with us, and
do that which is right for us, because we're a people who are
needy. In verse 6, we have this confession
of what we are by nature. Even our best things, the things
that we try to do best, all our righteousnesses, what are they
in the sight of the living God? Good things as religion will
teach you? No. They're filthy rags. They're fit for nothing other
than burning. Filthy rags of our own righteousnesses
that we do in the flesh to earn favor with God are of no value
whatsoever. They're filthy rags in his sight.
There's a confession of what we are and how much we need the
living God. There's a confession of spiritual
darkness in verse 7. There is none, look all around,
there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself
to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us. God is sovereign. God has chosen
in this generation to hide His face from many. You know, and
they can't blame God because their own stubborn hearts wouldn't
have Him anyway, but He has hidden His face from them. You have
consumed us because of our iniquities. And then it goes on with the
prayer and with a plea, a plea for rescue and restoration in
verses 9 to 12 of that chapter. Well, that's all well and good,
but we almost must ask the question, what are we to make of it today? at this time, today, for our
good and for our learning, because as we know, all of the Scriptures
written of old, as Paul tells the Romans, Romans 15 verse 4,
they were written for our learning. All these Scriptures were written
to teach us something, that we, through the patience and comfort
of the Scriptures, might have hope. in a world where there
is no hope. What is it to be without God
and without Christ in this world? It's to be without hope. It's
to be without any hope whatsoever. The best you can look forward
to is a healthy life and a successful career and then death. And it's
appointed to man to die once and then the judgment. But oh,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the truth of God revealed in
the Scriptures. Through patience and comfort
of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Now, in Corinthians, in
his letter to the Corinthians that Peter read for us earlier,
1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul quotes verse 4. And that's where
I want to focus our time this morning. So look at verse 4 first
of all before we go there. God has done terrible things.
The mountains float down at your presence. You are a God who does
things. Verse 4, For since the beginning
of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he has prepared for
him that waits for him. There's a whole world of spiritual
truth and revelation that men in general, naturally, have no
idea about. But God has prepared wonderful
spiritual blessings for the ones that wait for Him. Now turn over
to 1 Corinthians 2 and we'll spend most of the rest of our
time there, because there in verse 9, Paul quotes it. Now you know that the New Testament
is translated from the Greek in which it was written, and
the Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew, so you never
get the words exactly the same, and Paul was writing by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit puts a slightly different
slant on some of the words, but nevertheless he says, but as
it is written, this is 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, as it is written,
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, Neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them, not
that wait for him, but for them that love him. But God has revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. That's our business this
morning. Oh, that we can get into the
deep things of God. Isn't it not? that we might get,
whatever else you might do this day, this week, through the rest
of you, all that we might get into the deep things of God,
the deep things of God. I want us to see, first of all,
those that love and wait for God. Secondly, natural darkness
versus spiritual light. And thirdly, the things that
God has prepared for His people, the things that God has prepared.
So first of all, those that love and wait for God. In Isaiah 64
verse 4 it says those that wait for Him. In 1 Corinthians chapter
2 verse 9 it says those that love Him. But in both cases it's
the things that God has prepared for people who are described
as those who wait for God and those who love God, those who
love God. You know, you see it all around
you, don't you? In those that are close to you,
that you know, that have no knowledge of the truth of God. We all,
by nature, do not love God. It isn't in the natural spirit
of man to love God. Romans 8 verse 7 says, the carnal
mind, which is the fleshly mind, the natural mind, this flesh
and bones and brains and blood and sinews, the natural mind
is enmity with God, against God. It's the enemy of God in its
natural state. There isn't any love for God
in the natural heart. What's in the natural heart?
We were singing about it in that second hymn. It's just hardness
and sin and rebellion and rejection. The people said of Jesus, we
will not have this man to rule over us. No, we won't have him.
We won't have him. They saw in him no comeliness
that they should desire him. They only followed him in great
multitudes when they thought they were going to get a free
meal without working for it. No. No, only sin and rebellion. In the natural heart, in the
natural mind, in the natural man, there is no desire for communion
with God. You know, I've told you before,
a common phrase of the world towards people who do find God
and follow God is that they bother God. They're God-botherers, as
they say. People who bother God. Leave
him alone, he doesn't want anybody to have anything to do with him.
That's the natural man, they don't want any communion with
God. They have no desire in their
heart to be at peace with God. Don't you? Isn't the greatest
thing you can experience a knowledge of peace with God? As I approach
the end of my life, as I think about the fact that I don't know
what's going to happen, I might have an accident, I might fall
ill, who knows? None of us know what's going
to happen in the providence of God. But oh, to lie down in peace. I will both lie me down in peace
and sleep. because God causes me to dwell
safely. God's got my life in His hands. He's got my future in His hands. But the natural man has no knowledge
of this, and no desire for it, and no thought of heavenly bliss. In his prayer, Peter mentioned
a couple of times that bliss of heaven with no sin. In this world, everything is
tainted with sin. The God of the universe who made
all things, to whom we must give account, is holy and dwells in
unapproachable light. And even the sinless angels veil
their faces and cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The whole earth
is full of his glory. This God with whom we have to
do is so holy, and yet we are so full of sin without any thought
for Him in our natural state. So you might ask, how does anyone
come to love God? Come on, tell me. Tell me, preacher,
what must I do that I might love God? What must I do? And my answer
to you is this, you can do nothing. You can do nothing. But you can
get hold of this, He must first love us. God must first love
us. What did John say in his epistle,
1st John chapter 4 verse 19? He says to believers, he says,
we love him. We love him. His people love
him. Why? He gives the reason straight
away. Because he first loved us. How do we know he loved us? Because
Jeremiah the prophet tells us, the Lord hath appeared of old
unto me saying, yea, he appeared of old. saying, Yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. God has a people, a multitude,
which no man can number. And right to the moment they
leave this life, you don't know who is in or out of that number. You only know who's in for sure
because they believe the truth. Sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. Just as I keep telling you, Like
that woman said to Spurgeon, she said, why do you keep saying
that you must be born again? And he said, because madam, you
must be born again. That's why I keep saying it. You must be born again. It's
entirely of God's Spirit. It's entirely the sovereign volition
of God. Volition, long words. I bet the
little boys don't know what volition means. It means what you want.
Your volition is what you wish for. It's from the Latin, or
it's from the French as well, vouloir, to want something. It's
your own volition, the thing that you want, the thing that
you want. It's entirely of God's Spirit,
of God's Spirit. He is the one who gives it. Jesus,
it says in John chapter 1 verse 13 about those who are born again,
it says they're born by the Spirit of God, they're born not of blood,
None of the natural process of natural birth, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, they're born of God. They're born of God. And there's
a people, a multitude in all ages, without distinction of
ethnicity, young and old, in all ages, that are taught to
fear God. Who teaches them to fear God?
Ah, the fearsome preacher teaches them to fear God, with his hell
and damnation. Well, there might be an element
of that, but true fear of God is taught by God alone. You see,
there is a teaching of the fear of God by men in religion. There's a lot of religion around
us, a lot of legalistic religion around us, which, as Isaiah 29
verse 13 says, their fear toward me is taught by the precept of
men, not by God. But a true teaching of the fear
of God is the sovereign gift of God. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. The Holy Ghost teaches us what
we are in the sight of God. This is divine revelation. That's
why the article I've put in is Ian Potts' forward to my book
on revelation, and it says the vital thing that religion hates,
that the world around hates, is this, that it is the sovereign
gift of God to reveal his truth to whom he will. It's the sovereign
gift of God. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, it's
like the wind. I know we've got very comprehensive
weather charts these days, but it's certainly true that the
wind blows where it wants. And you hear the sound of it,
and you see the effects of what it does. But you don't know where
it came from. There was a tornado swept across the M25 south of
London yesterday, apparently, in one of the rainstorms. And
that's quite a rare thing for one as big as it was. It did
quite a bit of damage in gardens in Surrey. I bet the people there
had no idea where it had come from, or where it was going to
when it had knocked their fence and their sheds down. It blows
where it wants to. It goes where it wants to. It's
like that with the Spirit of God. Get this. People, get this. and you see yourself entirely
at the mercy of God. You're not going to stand up
and argue with God about what he's entitled to do. You're going
to bow before the sovereign of the universe, who knows everything,
who determines everything, who carries out everything that he
wants to, so that when you've got this, like that publican
at the wall, that Jesus pointed out to his disciples. There was
the Pharisee claiming wonderful things that he'd done and that
he was and how God must favor him. And there's the sinner,
the publican, who is standing there and he's got only one thing
to say, God. Be merciful to me, a sinner.
Please, God, I have nothing else to... I have no goodness to plead.
I have no argument to bring. I have only one thing to plead.
You are a God of mercy. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Who taught him he was a sinner?
Answer, God alone taught him he was a sinner. Where did he
show him he was a sinner? In his heart, he showed him he
was a sinner. He teaches his people to fear
God. This isn't the fear of terror
and judgment. The fear that the child of God lives in is a reverence. It's a loving reverence. It's
a loving fear of God. He teaches us to bow before His
sovereignty, before who He is. And that fear that He teaches,
the Scripture tells us, is the beginning of wisdom. It's the
beginning of true knowledge. And what do I mean when I talk
about wisdom? Well, the word is pretty obvious, but specifically
in the Scriptures it means heavenly wisdom. It means wisdom concerning
eternal things. It means wisdom concerning the
things of God, of righteousness, of sin, of redemption. It's gospel
wisdom. It's the good news wisdom of
salvation. It's the beginning of wisdom
is the fear of God. Don't think you breeze as an
arrogant person into the presence of God and get yourself kitted
out for heaven. No, get down. He that is down need fear no
fall, he that is low no pride. Oh that God in his sovereign
grace might bring us down low and show us what we are. And
he does this for those that he chose in Christ before the beginning
of time, that multitude that no man can number. He loved them,
as we've read, with an everlasting love. He drew them and called
them with the gospel, for it's by the foolishness of preaching
the gospel that it pleased God to save sinners. And he stirred
them up in their sins and awareness of their sin to what it says
right from the start of the scripture, men began to call upon the name
of the Lord. For we know that whosoever calls
upon the name of the Lord, what does he say? Shall be saved. Whosoever calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. And he teaches his people to
wait for him. to look for His appearing, to
live with Him, to walk with Him, to love His appearing. Do you
remember Simeon? It's that time of year when there's
all sorts of Christmas sentimentality out there and virtually no knowledge
of the Gospel of Grace to go with it. And religion does all
that it wants to do. And in Luke chapter 2 verse 25,
let me remind you. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon, and the same was just and devout, waiting
for the consolation of Israel. What's the consolation of Israel?
It's the coming of the Saviour. It's the coming of the Messiah.
It's the coming of the messenger of the covenant. And the Holy
Ghost was upon him. Ah, do you see? The work of God.
Here's this old man waiting. And it was revealed to him by
the Holy Ghost that he won't die until he'd seen the Lord's
Christ. Until the Christ came and he
saw him. Because he's waiting. Why is
he waiting? Because this book told him it was time for him
to come. In the prophecy of Daniel, there
it is quite clearly and he'd looked and he'd studied and he'd
interpreted the weeks and he thought, it must be about now.
All the signs are there, it must be about now. He must be coming
about now. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents, Joseph
and Mary, brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the
custom of the law, the custom of circumcision at eight days
old, Then Simeon came, and he took him up, the baby, in his
arms, and blessed God and said, Lord, now let your servant depart
in peace. I can die now according to your
word, according as you've told me. Why? Because mine eyes have
seen your salvation. Christ is the salvation of God. Do you have a saving interest
in the eternal purposes of God? Do you long for peace with God
and acceptance? For communion with God? It's
not just about knowing things about God, it's communion with
God. Do you have a desire for eternal
bliss with your Maker? Eternal bliss with no sin separating,
to be rid of sin and corruption, to be clothed as we were looking
in Isaiah, A few weeks ago, in Isaiah chapter 61, just a couple
of pages back from where we were, I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed
me with the garments of salvation. He's covered me with the robe
of righteousness. Is that what you desire? I certainly
do. I certainly do. Well, let's move
on. Because this is all about natural
darkness versus spiritual light. In verse 9, it is written that,
I has not seen. Where is it written? In Isaiah
64, verse 4. It's written, I has not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for those that love him. What's he talking
about here, eyes and ears and hearts? He's talking about natural,
fleshly eyes and ears and hearts. In their natural state, they
have no idea of what God has done in salvation for His people. That's what God has done, that's
what God has prepared for them that love Him. He's given them
hearts to love Him, and He's shown them things that He's prepared
for them, as we shall see. But the natural man, The people
we meet every day, all around us, have no knowledge of these
things. They don't seek after them. They have no desire to
want them. There is no desire in them to hear about these things.
The very opposite, they want nothing to do with it. La la,
fingers in ears, shut, shut, don't mention that to me, I want
nothing to do with it. Leave me alone as far as that's
concerned. I have nothing to do with that. Well, you draw
down your own condemnation upon your head. We know the natural
man, as it says in verse 14, does not receive the things of
the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him. The things
of the Spirit of God. To the natural man, in his natural
state, a foolishness. Neither can he know them. He
doesn't have the ability to know them. Why? Because you need spiritual
discernment. You need spiritual senses. Fleshly
senses sense only physical things. Ears and eyes of the flesh, I
can look out of the window and I can see with my eyes physical
things. I can hear physical sounds. In
my heart I feel fleshly things. but not spiritual things by nature. I need spiritual light, I need
spiritual discernment. Naturally, we're in darkness,
knowing only man's wisdom. Look at verse 4. My speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the power. The words of man's wisdom are
what the natural man has. The wisdom of this world, verse
6, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the
wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that
come to naught. The wisdom of this world at its
highest level. is foolishness compared with
the wisdom of God, not the hidden wisdom of God. What are we talking
about with wisdom? We're talking about saving knowledge. We're talking about the truth
of justice with God. What is wrong with most religion
that we see all around us? and even and especially that
which calls itself the most orthodox of Christianity at times. Answer? It's based on worldly, fleshly,
natural wisdom, and not the wisdom of God. But Paul says to those
who have been enlightened, in Ephesians 5, verse 8, he says,
you were sometimes darkness. You, in your natural state, were
dark, but with the light of God, the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you are light
in the Lord. As Isaiah said in chapter 9,
and this is often quoted at this time of year, isn't it? The people,
Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2, the people that walked in darkness,
we all walk in darkness by nature. If you're a believer this morning,
surely you can remember a time when you walked in darkness.
You had no knowledge of spiritual truth. The people that walked
in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
And what is the light that has shined? It is the knowledge of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. For as it says in verse 6, For
unto us those that have been so enlightened, a child is born,
and to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
The father of John the Baptist said in Luke chapter 1 and verse
76 when he got his voice back when the child was born and they
came to name the child and they said surely you're going to call
him Zacharias and he said no his name shall be John. He wrote
down on a tablet his name and he got his voice back. because
the angel had taken that voice away from him, and he prophesied,
and he said of John the Baptist, his son, he said, Thou, child,
shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go
before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge
of salvation to his people by the remission, the removing of
their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the
day spring from on high hath visited us, Who's the Dayspring
from on high? Is it not the Lord Jesus Christ?
And what does He bring when He comes? He gives light to them
that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our
feet into the way of peace. This is what was prophesied of
John the Baptist concerning him going before the face of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In the coming of Christ to accomplish
redemption, the purchase, the payment of the ransom price of
liberty from sin, that's what redemption is. To accomplish
redemption the light of God is beamed, as I've said. the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So come back to verse 9 of 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The natural senses
have no concept. They're incapable of sensing
the things of the Spirit. the things that God has prepared
for the objects of His grace, those who love Him, those who
wait for Him. But verse 10, look what it says,
the natural man knows none of this, but God has revealed them
to us by His Spirit, to us. to us. Throughout the epistles,
be careful when you read us. What's it talking about? It isn't
talking about all men without exception. Not by any means.
It's talking about the elect people of God. I'll just refer
you to chapter 13 of Matthew. Just listen to this. Chapter
13 and verse 10. The disciples came and said to
Jesus, why do you teach them in parables? And he answered
and he said, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven. It is given. It's a gift. It's
the sovereign gift of God that you might know the secrets, the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven that the natural man doesn't
know. But to the rest, it is not given. Do you see that? It's
the sovereign grace of God that does this. You know, the natural
man hates this message that I'm preaching this morning. If anybody's
listening in their natural state and saying, oh, those are nice
words, aren't they? Listen to them again. You'll hate them
in your natural state. But if God gives you light, if
God gives you light, you'll embrace them and you'll love these words.
The mysteries of the kingdom of God are given to his people,
the kingdom of heaven, but to the rest it's not given. It isn't
given. It's to fulfill the prophecy
of Isaiah. By hearing you shall hear and
shall not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive
for this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull
of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time
they should understand with their heart and convert and I should
heal them. That's what God said. Blessed
are your eyes. This is the doctrine of Christ,
which is hated by the natural man, but gladly embraced by those
he brings to bow before his sovereign majesty. Will you dispute with
God, or will you bow? Will you bow? Lord, teach me
that I am a sinner. Lord, be merciful to me. Pass
me not, O gracious Saviour. Hear my humble cry. Whilst on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by. God must give faith
and then speak to the ear of faith. God must give faith and
reveal to the eye of faith. God must give faith and warm
the heart of faith. So that as Peter says concerning
Jesus Christ, he says, Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though
now ye see him not with physical eyes, yet believing by faith
given from God, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And this is the present earthly
experience of believers. God has revealed to his people
that which he has withheld from the natural man in general. And
I mean the deep secrets of God's eternal purposes of grace. The
secrets of the covenant of grace. The hidden mystery, verse 7,
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory. This is
the gospel that the natural man does not receive. Saving grace
that Christ reveals, he says, John 15, verse 15, to his friends. He says, I have called you friends.
For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known
to you." Friends tell their friends their secrets, don't they? And
Christ has revealed the hidden mystery of eternal wisdom, the
gospel of His grace, to His friends. God has promised in Christ, as
it says in Proverbs, to cause those that love me to inherit
substance. And he says, I will fill their
treasuries. Is your treasury filled with
the blessings of the gospel of grace? That soul food on which
your soul delights to feed? And where do we find it? Colossians
2 verse 3, in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. Think about the things of this
world and the things that you do. We live in the world, we
interact with the world, we go about the world. There are things
that we have to do. We're told, as much as in us
is with our neighbours and friends and relatives around us, aim
to live at peace with all men. Don't cause any offence other
than the offence that they will definitely take at this gospel
of grace. But aim to live at peace as much
as in you is. And when you go along with things,
how trivial are the best pursuits of the natural man by comparison
to these heavenly treasures. Are they not? These heavenly
treasures, you cannot put a value on them, can you? They're invaluable. It's the pearl of greatest price,
isn't it? When the hoarder of jewels found the pearl of greatest
price, what did he do with all the rest that were in the case?
He just threw them away. They were of no value. It's all
prepared by God for the eternal benefit of the people that He's
loved in sovereign grace. Now I'm going to finish quickly.
What are the divinely prepared things? Let me remind you. What
things does the natural man have no concept of, but to the child
of God are the sweetest of treasures? What are the things that God
has prepared for them that love Him? What are the things that
the natural heart and mind and eye and ear have no sense of,
but the spiritual heart, born of the Spirit of God, the spiritual
mind, the spiritual eye, the spiritual ear, sense and rejoice
in? What are these things that are
such treasures for the soul, such food for the soul, such
refreshment for the dry and parched soul? First of all, is it not
redemption? redemption, that Christ has bought
the release from sin of his people, redemption in his blood. It's
accomplished as Hebrews 9 verse 12 tells us, by his own blood,
his blood, the life was in the blood, it's with his life, for
the soul that sins it shall die and he paid with his life, with
his life blood for the sins of his people and thereby having
obtained eternal redemption from us. Redemption, the ransom price,
the release price from bondage, the release from what? Redemption
from the misery and the wretchedness and the guilt and the bondage
of sin, from the terror of divine wrath, for it's appointed to
man to die once and then the judgment, and it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God
is a consuming fire, and that's the same God who changes not.
but yet in redemption. We have release from all of that,
redemption from it, liberty from it. We have the assurance, as
Jesus said, that whoever eats my flesh spiritually, and whoever
drinks my blood spiritually, has eternal life. We have redemption. This is what God has prepared
for us, for our senses. We have justification. Secondly,
We have the righteousness of God in Christ. At the trial,
at the bar of God's justice, it is declared of his people
there is no sin for which to give an account, for it is taken
away. Christ has justified his people. How should a man be just with
God, asked Job. Answer, in the righteousness
that Christ has made over to his people. How righteous ought
we to be, need we to be? We need to be as righteous as
God to be in heaven. We need to be as righteous as
God. Where are we going to get it? Only by that which Christ
makes us, for He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We have the garments
of salvation ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb, prepared
and revealed for us, and there's certainty that there is no charge
standing against us, for as Romans says, who shall lay any charge
to God's elect? Christ has died. There is no
more My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not
in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. There is therefore, says Paul, there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Why?
Because he has justified us. This is what God has prepared
to reveal to the spiritual new man that he puts in his people.
We have a precious Christ, thirdly, a precious Christ. Christ who
is everything. He is all and in all. He is the
way, the truth and the life to come to God, and no man comes
to God truly any other way. There is not one God at the top
of a mountain and multiple different ways up it. There is only one
way. Religions of this world, there
is only one way. It is only Christ. You need wisdom
from God. You need righteousness from God.
You need sanctification set apart for the service of God. You need
redemption from the curse of the law. And it's only, only,
only in Christ. All of your other prophets are
futile and worthless. It's only in Christ. And when
you have Him, and when you know Him, and when He's shown you
what He's prepared for you, and what He's revealed to you, to
you who believe this Christ is precious, says Peter. He walks
with me. There's that old chorus that
we used to sing, I don't know if the people that wrote it knew
the truth and the weight of it, but it goes like this. He lives,
He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He
walks with me, and He talks with me, along life's narrow way.
He lives, he lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know
he lives? He lives within my heart. Those
are good words. Those are good words. I used
to sing it in Arminian circles, and whether the people there
knew the force of it, that is the message of scripture. Christ
with his people. This is what God has prepared
for them that love him. And finally, and I'm finished,
the certainty of heaven. Ah, what a blessing, eh? What
a blessing, the certainty of heaven. Not the possibility,
the certainty of heaven. In my Father's house, said Jesus
to his disciples, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it
were not so, I would have told you. I go, he said, to prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. Believer,
the Lord Jesus Christ is coming for you, to take you there. That
he prayed that of his father the night before he was crucified,
that those people that you have given me might be with me where
I am, that they might behold my glory, that where I am, they
may be also. Oh, that this might be the testimony
of all who hear this. And I'm just going to read this
just to finish. Psalm 73, verse 24 to 28. Thou shalt guide me with Thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but Thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside Thee. You know whatever you hold most
dear. my wife, my family, the things I possess, the home that
I have, you know, all of those things. They're dear, they're
dear, but whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon
earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth.
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go a-whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw
near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God, that I may declare all thy works. Amen.