Well, this week has been a very
busy week for me. We had to go up north for a funeral
and all sorts of other things and so it's been a bit distracting.
So I'm going to have a short break from Isaiah. Do you know
it was February 2018 when I started the series in Isaiah and there's
still a way to go yet. So we'll have a short break.
We've had one or two breaks in the last few months from time
to time. So a short break from Isaiah and What has been on my
mind this week particularly is what a blessing it is to have
true faith. You know it says, blessed are
you when God has revealed things to me. How blessed, how favoured
by God, how singled out for the favour of God. Those who have
the faith of God's elect, as it is called in the Scriptures
in Titus, it's those who have the faith of God's elect. God
has an elect, a multitude, no man can number, and He gives
faith to those people. And those who have the faith
of God's elect, that revelation from God, that revelation from
on high, that which is not worked out by the flesh, by the intellect,
by how intelligent you are, by the books you read, it is that
which is revealed by the Spirit of God in the heart. Those who
have that faith of God's elect, you have to admit, are a tiny
minority. Our little gathering here this
morning just underlines the fact that we live in a world that
on the whole hates the things of the living God. It may have
its religion, it may gather together, it may do all of the movements
and the motions of religion, but as far as the message of
this book, the Scriptures, the Word of God, the true Word of
God, the word that is as near to the original as we can possibly
get. Those that have that message are very few and far between,
because this world is full of wolves in sheep's clothing, who
call themselves vicars and pastors and ministers and all sorts of
things, who make it their business to distort what this word says,
and to turn the truth of God and the truth of His sovereign
grace into a lie invented by man. But it's nothing new. It has always been like it since
the fall. You look at the patriarchs and how few they were. How many
people do you think there were in the world when Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord? There must have been millions.
There must have been. There must have been. I don't
know how we would ever estimate it, but there must have been.
How many people found grace in the eyes of the Lord? Answer?
Eight. There were eight in the ark.
There were eight that were saved. Think about Abraham's day. Think
about him being called out of Ur of the Chaldees. Such a minority. Think about the nation, little
Israel, compared with the great empires of the world. You know,
the multitudes were in the Egyptian Empire, and the Assyrian Empire,
and the Babylonian Empire, and the Persian Empire, and the Greek
Empire, and the Roman Empire. And there was little Israel.
See, it's never been any different. If you think that if I believe
God, I'm going to be going along with the majority, and there
are going to be great crowds of us, and what a wonderful thing
it is, and what a mark of success in the truth of God is the fact
that we've got thousands coming along, I tell you, the message
of Scripture is exactly the opposite. The chances are that if you've
got thousands, you're probably following a false gospel. You're
probably following what we see in Revelation 17, that which
looks like true religion, but turns out to be a harlot. I saw
a woman, said John, and she was arrayed gorgeously, but she was
feasting on the blood of the saints. No, it's always been
the way that the truth is a minority. Even after the ministry of Christ
himself, when he walked the earth for three and a half years ministering,
grew to 30 years old and then three and a half years of ministry,
and do you know how many people there were at the end of that
that looked like they had believed the truth? They were the ones
that were waiting in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Do you know how
many there were? Probably 120, that's all. No more than that, just 120.
Has it not always been the case? You know, if modern preachers
who put great store by numbers and success, they would say that
the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ was an astounding failure. 120, after all of what he'd done,
the miracles he'd done, the teaching, the crowds followed, but 120
knew the truth at the end of it. and the history of the last
2,000 years records very, very few who clearly embraced the
true Gospel. But there were some. So it is
today. Why do only a few believe and
the majority don't? In Acts 28-24, it talks about
Paul having preached, and it says this, Some believed the
things which were spoken, and some believed not. Some believed
they heard the same thing, but some believed and some believed
not. Jesus himself said in Luke 8
verse 18, he said, when he comes again, when he the son of man
comes, shall he find faith on the earth? What he's saying is,
it is going to be a very rare thing. True faith is a very rare
thing. Please do not think for one moment
it's a thing where you will find yourself in crowds and in the
majority. That's always been the case,
and it is God's way. What did Jesus say to his people,
to his disciples? He said, fear not, little flock. He said the way is narrow. Broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go that
way. But narrow is the way that leads to life. And why do those
who do believe, and thank God there are those who do truly
believe the gospel, but why are they so often afflicted with
doubt and question the truth? I put in the bulletin today two
or three articles, and please bear in mind that, you know,
Putting together a bulletin is not something that's easier than
falling off a log. You have to look for material,
you have to search for things, you have to write something yourself.
Well this week there are things that I've found, and I think
they go together very well. There's an article by Todd Nybert
about those who believe always being afflicted with unbelief.
And then the second article is by J.C. Philpott from 150 years
or so ago, talking about the tendency of the flesh to
love the things of the world, and what a mark of grace it is
when God, by sovereign grace and divine revelation, opens
the eyes of the soul so that despite this flesh loving inherently
the things of the world, we're given a spirit that loves the
things of God. Read those articles, read them.
So what I want to do is look at this passage in Mark chapter
5 that Peter read for us earlier, just a couple of verses from
it, but in the process I want to get to the root of the blessing
of true faith, the blessing that is true faith. And first of all,
why and how do some believe God? In this passage in Mark chapter
5, starting at verse 21, there's the account of Well, you can
pronounce it how you want, but I pronounce it Gyrus. But never
mind, this was the ruler of the synagogue who came to Jesus and
his daughter was about to die and he had nowhere else to go
and he came to Jesus. He'd heard of him and he came
to Jesus. And then whilst the crowd was there, there was a
crowd, there was always a crowd that was interested in the Lord
Jesus Christ, was interested in what miracle he was going
to do. They were interested in if he was going to feed another
5,000. They were interested in were they going to get a free
meal without having to go to work. The crowd was there, interested
in it as much as the Jewish rulers hated it because they knew he
would remove their situation, he would remove their living,
he would remove their status. If he was true, everything that
they stood for was false, and they hated him for that. But
the crowd was interested, and out of that crowd, there was
Jairus, who had this daughter that was sick. And there was
this woman, a certain woman, verse 25, a certain woman. They're on the way to Jairus'
house, and there's a great crowd thronging around the Lord Jesus
Christ. Have you ever been in a crowd
where you can hardly move? You know, when you're in a big,
big crowd, and people are pushing you from all sides. You know,
you're on a tube train that's absolutely crowded, and people
like their own space, but there are those times when it's so
crowded, you can't help it, you're sort of, you're stuck in between
somebody else's head here and somebody down here. It's jam-packed. This is the kind of crowd that
it was as they were going along. And it says there was a certain
woman, a certain woman which had a serious sickness, a serious
illness, an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many
things of many physicians. She'd been to physicians to try
to make her better. She'd spent all her money because,
you know, they say if you've got your health, you've got everything
that you need, and she didn't have hers. And whatever other
resources she had, what was the point of spending it on other
things when she didn't have her health? Every day was a battle
against this malady that she had. She'd spent everything she
had on these many physicians and was nothing better. No, she
rather grew worse. Think about this. The crowd pressed
against Jesus out of curiosity, out of interest. The crowd, I
don't know how many, hundreds, there must have been hundreds.
They all pressed trying to take an interest, what was he going
to do next? What was he going to say next? How were the Pharisees
going to react to it? The crowd was interested, they
pressed, but in the story, in the account, we read of only
two people who touched him. Jairus touched him. In what sense? Probably not physically. Jairus
touched him in the sense that Jairus knew that this one man
was the only one that could do any good for the desperate situation
of his little 12-year-old daughter who was about to die. And the
woman with her malady, When everybody else was pressing, she touched
him. She touched him. She knew that
nobody else could do her good. She knew that there was no other
force in the universe that could do anything for her than him.
Let's focus on this woman. There are crowds of people who
are fascinated by Jesus, by his teaching, by his miracles, but
there was this certain woman. In that crowd, a certain woman.
What brought her to Christ believing, and for Christ to tell her that
she was healed, she was made whole? He knew that virtue had gone
out of him into this woman. This woman was a saved woman
as a result of her encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
certain things that we can see here. First of all, it was a
work of providence. It was God that did this for
this woman. And the first thing that he did was he gave her this
dreadful sickness. You say, shocking thought. Does God do things like that?
Oh yes, my friends, God does. God does. God, in a work of divine
providence, gave her this malady to afflict her. He gave her this
malady because he had designs of eternal grace for her soul. He gave her this illness to wean
her away from reliance on the comfort of this world and on
the things of this world, and to set her heart on the things
of God and on eternity. This was the sovereign purpose
of God, to wean her from the love of the world to seek blessing
which is eternal. I remember when Christine was
unwell some years ago, and after it all, she said, and she still
does tell people, God sent this to me, God gave me this, and
God took it away. God gave it to me and God took
it away. It's an act of divine providence. You say, well, that's
not a very nice way to act. This is God accomplishing his
sovereign purposes. This is God who designed that
this woman would have this malady in the flesh so that she would
find eternal blessing in salvation in Christ. This was his purpose. And this is the purpose of God.
This is what God does. This is how God blesses the objects
of His grace. the objects of those to whom
He gives true faith. He blesses them by ordering their
paths to bring them to where they must come to Him. She had
tried everything that this world offers. She had tried everything
that was available. Many physicians, she'd spent
all that she had. She'd gone to the quack doctors.
She'd gone to Every remedy she possibly could. She tried, as
that old hymn says, she tried the broken cisterns, the water
tubs, and found that there was no water in them that would satisfy.
She tried them and they were broken. They can hold no soul-satisfying
water. She only grew worse. And this
was God's work of providence. There's another hymn that we
sing from time to time, a hymn of William Cooper. God moves
in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps
in the sea and rides upon the storm. This is God's way. It
may be mysterious to our fleshly reasoning, but it's for his divine
purposes of grace. And this woman experienced a
work of providence from God. Secondly, There was a work of
the Word of God. Look in verse 27. When she had
heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind and touched his
garment. In her desperation, somebody, I don't know who, she'd
heard somebody say, you need to come and see a man. You know,
like the Samaritan woman went back into the village and she's
told the men of the village, she said, come and see a man
that told me all things that ever I did. I've never come across
anybody like this one. She had heard of Jesus. Come
and hear. Come and see. A man who is special. An extraordinary man. Somebody
that is beyond what is normally man. You see, God never does
a work of grace apart from His Word pointing to His Son. What's the purpose of the Scripture?
Jesus himself said to the Pharisees, these scriptures which you search,
because in them you think you have eternal life, and that's
right, but these scriptures are they, they're not there to teach
you how to live, they're to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth of God is not a set
of doctrines, the truth of God is a person that you know intimately
and personally. This word points to his son.
You know, as Spurgeon told the story of a young man who was
an aspiring preacher, and an old preacher came to hear him,
and at the end of it the young man was puffed up and thought
he'd delivered a very good piece of oratory. And as the old preacher
was going out of the church, the young man said to him, what
did you think of my sermon? Whoever his name was. And he
said, well, I didn't like it. Oh, shock. Oh, the young man
was utterly, why didn't you like it? He said, because there was
no Christ in it. And the young man said, but there
was no Christ in the text. And he said, young man, learn
this when you go to preach. Just as in every village in England
is a signpost pointing to London, In the Scriptures, every verse,
if you look for it, has a signpost that will point you to Christ.
Your business as a preacher is to find that signpost, and find
that road, and preach up the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's
what it's there for. The Word. There's a work of the
Word of God. What a blessing. The blessings
of true faith. Do you know if you have this
Word, which this world treats with contempt and scorn, uttered
contempt and scorn, you get the likes of Richard Dawkins and
all of his friends who try to tell us that there is no God,
and what does Scripture say of him? The fool has said in his
heart, there is no God, no God for me. They try to pour scorn
and ridicule on this book, and yet if you have this book, and
you have that work of grace of God to show you Christ in this
book, what a blessing it is. What a solid foundation. Jesus
himself said in the Sermon on the Mount, he who builds his
life on this rock, the rock which is Christ which is in this word,
is like the man that built his house on a rock and the storms
came along and it stood firm. But the foolish man who treats
it with contempt is like the man who builds the house of his
life on the sand and the wind blows and the rain comes and
great is the fall of that house. No, in this world of unbelief
and superstition, because there's so much superstition, is there
not, regarding life and death and eternity and truth and righteousness,
so much unbelief and superstition, oh what a solid rock is the Word
of God. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
Have you heard God's Word speak to you? Oh, the blessing of this
Word speaking to you. Is it not, as Peter said to Jesus,
where are you going to go? Are you going to go away? Are
you going to leave me too? Look, all these disciples, they
don't like my message, and they've gone away. John chapter 6, and
he says to the 12, are you going to go away? and leave me too?'
And Peter says, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life. And having heard them, there's
nowhere else we can go. They can do what they want to
us. The martyrs of the past, you know, John Bunyan, they locked
him up for 12 years in Bedford jail. And did they stifle his
spirit? No. In a work of providence of God,
it was those 12 years that led to him writing some of the greatest
works of English literature, to preach, proclaim the gospel
of his grace in Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War. These are all
works of the providence of God. This book is unique for light
in a dark world. As the psalm says, psalm 105,
sorry, is it? No, no, 119, 105, isn't it? Your
word is a, I always forget which way around, but a lamp to my
feet and a light to my path. It might be a light to my feet
and a lamp to my path. It's filled with the hope of
eternity, is this book. Is it not? that it's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment, so how should a man
be just with God? And this book is full of the
truth that leads to the hope of eternity, because Christ has
fulfilled all. There was a work of the Word
of God. Thirdly, there was a work of
grace. You know, as I keep saying, it
isn't of the intellect. It isn't of the mind. It isn't
of the doctrines you study. And I'm not saying don't study
doctrine. It's a good thing to study doctrine.
It's a good thing to read books that will build you up. But don't
think that it's a mechanical mental process. It's a work of
God's grace. It's a work of the Spirit of
God. It was God's prerogative. Do you know what that word means,
prerogative? Choice. Choice. It was His choice. It was nobody else's choice.
You say, well, surely people choose God. Yes, they do, but
listen, Jesus said, you didn't choose me, I chose you to his
disciples. It was God's prerogative to single
out this woman. You notice in the Gospels, many
times we read of a certain man, a certain woman. It's not of
him that wills, nor of him that runs, says God's word, but of
God who shows mercy. Look in Luke chapter 10, Luke
chapter 10, verse 21. I've got a few scriptures for
you and I'd better hurry up because time is going. In that hour,
Jesus rejoiced in his spirit and said, I thank... This is
the man who is God praying to his Father in heaven. Do you
understand it? No, neither do I, but it's here
in the Word of God. Jesus praying to his Father says,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, those who think
they are, and hast revealed them unto babes, those with an attitude
which is humble and meek. Even so, father, why, why did
he do it? For so it seemed good in thy
sight. So it seemed good in the sight
of God. And all things are delivered
to me of the Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the
Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and He to whom the
Son will reveal Him. or that God might reveal the
truth of who He is to you in your heart and in your soul.
This is the blessing of true faith. In the Sermon on the Mount,
blessed are the meek, blessed are they that hunger and thirst
for, blessed, favoured by God. favoured, uniquely favoured by
God, because God has looked down and in grace has done that work
of grace in the soul. Blessed with heavenly treasure.
You know Jesus spoke of heavenly treasure? He spoke of that light
of truth, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that's in
the face of Jesus Christ. A lamp, this grace gives us a
lamp for the path of life. It gives us comfort for justification
with God, knowing that it is well with my soul, for my sins
have been dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ. It gives us the
assurance of care and protection as we walk through life. When
we come to death, to the end of life, oh, what peace there
is for the people of God. What peace and comfort. What
peace and comfort. This day, you know, you hear
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to that thief on the cross. That's
the third article in the bulletin by Don Faulkner. The thief on
the cross, the penitent thief. Remember me, about to die. Verily
I say unto you, this day shall you be with me in paradise. Peace
in death. Confidence of heaven. Look at
Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13 and verse
10. You see, it's all of the sovereign
grace of God. The disciples came and said to
him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he said unto
them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. We could
go on reading through, saying it's exactly what Isaiah said.
I won't do for the sake of time. But the point is, this work of
grace is a work of the sovereign will of God. And who are we to
argue with God? God is God. God will do whatsoever
He pleases. And there's nothing that we can
do or say that will go against that. then we hear that God is
a God of mercy, and we plead with Him that whilst on others
you are calling in mercy to come to Christ, please do not pass
me by, but reveal the truth of grace in my heart. All of God's
people, all of God's people shall be taught of God. You know, when
Peter confessed Christ, you know, he said, who do men say that
I am? Oh, well, they say you're one
of the prophets, or this, that, or the other. And Jesus said
to them, who do you say that I am? And Peter confessed, and
he said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It's
seen it clearly. Now, how did he get to know that?
Well, Jesus told him. He said, blessed, blessed, the
blessing of true faith. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,
Simon, the son of Jonah, who he named Peter. Blessed are you,
because flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you. It's not
somebody else has taught you it. You see, teaching one to
another is a good thing, and Paul commends Timothy to teach
others that they may be able to teach others also. But truly,
the true light from heaven must come by the revelation of the
Spirit of God in the soul. He said, flesh and blood hasn't
revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. We read in
the scriptures about the people of God, the ones with whom he
makes that new covenant of grace, and he says, all of my people,
they shall all be taught of God. Fourthly, there was a work of
faith. in this woman. There was a work of faith. God
did a work of faith in this woman. She believed Him. And why did
she believe Him? Did she believe Him because she
worked it out and she made her choice and she made her decision?
No. By grace are you saved, says Ephesians 2 verse 8. By grace
are you saved, how? Through faith, through the medium
of faith. Where do you get it? That not
of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It's a work of faith,
and it is a work of God. It's God's gift to His people.
Philippians 1.29, unto you, he's talking to believers, it is given
by God in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. You see, that belief is the gift
of God. It is given to you, singled out,
the blessing of true faith. But the faith was still the woman's.
The faith was still the woman's, it's still yours or mine if we
believe. She exercised that faith. You know there was a time when
Jesus was speaking to a man who had a withered hand. What it
was I don't know, but it was obviously an utterly impotent
hand that was curled up, couldn't do anything, couldn't work, couldn't
do the things that he had to do, and Jesus commanded him to
stretch out his hand. And with the command to stretch
out his hand came the power from God for the man to stretch out
his hand. You see? But he still exercised
his will to stretch out his hand. He still exercised his will,
and that's because God says he makes his people willing. Willing,
and able, in the day of his power. Fifthly, it's a work of God's
power, not only healing her, but it says, He has delivered
us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of the Son of His love. That's what the Word of God says.
God, in sovereign grace, takes His people out of the multitude
of humanity and translates them, moves them, into the kingdom
of the Son of His love. But even then, those who by grace
believe the truth of God's gospel, are daily afflicted by unbelief. And I haven't got much time left,
but I just want to cover this briefly. Those who by grace believe,
are blessed with believing the truth of God's gospel, Are we
not daily afflicted by unbelief? As this verse, I often quote
it, Mark 9, 24. The father of the child, this
is another father brought a child to Jesus to be healed. If you
believe, and the man says, Lord, I believe. He said with tears,
Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. And that's what Todd's article,
little article, is about. Read it. Lord, I believe, help
mine unbelief. Why do believers experience unbelief? Do you? I know I do. I know I
do. The answer is this. That whilst
we live in this life, were still flesh and spirit. The flesh is
still there. The flesh does not believe the
things of God. The flesh does not trust God. The flesh always looks to the
things of the world, and the spirit, the new man, given in
the new birth, always looks to the things of God. And Galatians
5.17 tells us that that's what's in all of us as believers, if
we are believers, is the old man that we're born with in the
flesh, and the new man that is born again of the spirit of God,
as Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, born again
of the Spirit of God, new life from on high, to see and hear
and feel and know the things of God. And those two natures
in the one person, it says, are warring one against the other,
and are contrary one to the other. The flesh does not mind, does
not think about the things of God. in 1 Corinthians chapter
2 verse 14. We read what the flesh is like
in its natural state. The natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. This is what you are by nature
in the flesh. You don't receive the things of the Spirit of God.
It's foolishness to you, neither can you know it. Why? Because
it's spiritually discerned. It's only the new man that has
spiritual discernment from on high that sees the things of
the Spirit of God. In Mark chapter 8 we read about
Jesus talking about going to the cross and Peter thinking
that he can stand up against him and stop him from doing that.
And Peter said, no, no, no, you're never going to do that, we love
you too much, we're never going to let you go and do that. And
Jesus rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for
you savour not the things that be of God, but the things that
be of man. The fleshiness savours the things
of this world, and the things that be of men, and not the things
of God. But praise God if you are a true
believer. There is a new man within that
believes the things of God, that savours the things of God, that
loves the righteousness of God, that longs for the eternity of
God and the kingdom of God to come, that has a hope of heaven,
that when this flesh dies and for some you live to a good old
age and others seem to be struck down in the prime of life with
cancer or some other disease or an accident or whatever it
might be, life is so fragile. And yet, whatever stage, those
are people who have a hope of eternity because their hearts
and their minds and their sight is set on the things of heaven.
You see, in the flesh there dwells no good thing, but in the new
birth, there's a new nature given. I just want, I know I'm giving
you lots of references, but 1 John chapter 3 and verse 6, whoever
abideth in him, he's talking about the new nature that is
from God in a believer. This one abides in God and does
not sin. You say, well, I sin. Yes, that's
your flesh. But the new man doesn't. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him. That's the old flesh. Neither
known him. Little children. Let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. That's the new man of the Spirit
of God. And he that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the
devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God, this is the new man of the Spirit
of God, does not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. You see, that's
the two natures in the one being. True believers are indeed, as
the Song of Solomon chapter 6 verse 13 says, a camp of two armies. That's what the believer is.
the army that is of the flesh, and the army that is of the Spirit
of God. But Scripture acknowledges that. Scripture doesn't leave us to
ourselves, it acknowledges that fact that believers are two natures
in the one person, and directs us regarding subduing the flesh
nature and promoting the new nature. It doesn't do it to make
us more sanctified, because we cannot be more holy than we are
made in Christ. If God has made us the righteousness
of God in Him, How can we be more holy? We are as holy as
we need to be. We have that righteousness, that
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. But it does
encourage us to increasingly have our affections set on things
above. Jesus said that. Set your minds
on things above, where Christ is. On eternal things, to lay
up treasure in heaven, on God's righteousness, on His kingdom. This is investment in eternity. He said don't lay up treasure,
don't invest in this world, where moth and rust corrupt, but in
heaven, in heavenly things. We're not told to sit back passively
and accept the status quo as it is, that, well, that's just
the way we are. No, Scripture exhorts, and we'll finish with
this, the exhortations of Scripture. Peter exhorts believers to grow. Why would it say it if it wasn't
the case? Scripture exhorts believers to
grow. Peter says, the last verse he
wrote, 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in grace. You believers, grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. That's where growth in grace comes from. Knowing him
more and more, reading of him in his word, seeking him in prayer. exercise the spiritual man, exercise
the new man born of God's Spirit, if indeed there is a new man
born of God's Spirit within you. And as Paul says to the Romans
in chapter 8 and verse 9, he says, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, If he hasn't had that new birth, if there
isn't that new man of the Spirit of God within, he is none of
his, he doesn't belong to Christ, he isn't a Christian. But if
there is a new man, that new man needs to be exercised. How
do we exercise that new man of the Spirit of God? Last week
we were in Isaiah 56 and verse 6, and it was, keep the Sabbath
and take hold of the covenant. And we saw what that means. There is an action in this, there
is a grasping, take hold of the covenant, keep the Sabbath. And
it's like I've already said, like the man with the withered
hand, the power to do is in the command from God. When God commands
us to do this, to keep the Sabbath, and when he commands us to take
hold of the covenant, with it comes the power to do. We saw,
what is it to keep the Sabbath and take hold of the new covenant?
It's to let go of the old covenant, number one. And by faith, look
to Christ. That's keeping the Sabbath. We're
not keeping the Sabbath by gathering together on a Sunday as the Sabbath
in its Christian form. Absolutely not. That's just complete
nonsense. That really isn't true. We keep
the Sabbath seven days a week when we look by faith to the
Lord Jesus Christ, when we rest in the righteousness He has accomplished
and finished. And how do we take hold of the
covenant? We confess our sin to God. We pray to him. We seek
that relationship with him. Oh, can we do something more
tangible? Yes, of course. If you're a new believer, if
you've truly believed, what can you do? You can ask to be baptized,
and being baptized, you can show personal identification with
him and his truth. We can gather together for worship.
You know, the internet is a wonderful thing. in these days, when the
people of God are in wilderness separation from one another and
from this world. But in this wonderful way, by
this medium that, of course, the kingdom of Satan uses for
all sorts of evil purposes, nevertheless, this enables isolated believers
to have fellowship, and it's a wonderful thing. Please don't
use it as an excuse not to seek to gather together if you possibly
can. If you possibly can, do it, gather
together, because there is great spiritual exercise in fellowship,
in comfort, You know, like the old illustration of the coals
of fire, and you take a burning coal out of the grate and put
it on the hearth, and there on its own, what does it do? It
withers and it goes out. It just smokes and it goes out.
That's what an old pastor did to demonstrate to one of his
members who'd stopped coming to church, stopped gathering.
He showed, look, if you isolate yourself, that's what will happen.
So if you possibly can, meet together. Seek the honor of God. Remember Christ in communion.
You do that together. live looking for his return.
This is all spiritual exercise. Positively seek to subdue the
desires of the flesh and promote those of the spirit. In Ephesians
4, we won't turn to it now, it talks about putting off the old
man and putting on the new man, like taking off old clothes and
putting on new clothes. It's a spiritual exercise. This
is how God answers the prayer, to help thou mine unbelief. Don't
just sit back and do nothing, but exercise the spiritual man. Paul says to Timothy that bodily
exercise profits a little. Bodily exercise does you good,
but godliness, and exercising that godly nature, is profitable
unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is and that
which is to come. Peter says that by such spiritual
exercise, You know, he says, add to your faith virtue, and
to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance
patience, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
charity. He says, by doing these things, by exercising these spiritual
things, you make your calling and election sure. That doesn't
mean you change God's mind, but you give yourself assurance in
the exercise of these things that you are the people of God.
You increasingly see things through the lens of God's perfect Word,
and seeing them that way, as another hymn says, the things
of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory
and grace. And that leads us on into the
full assurance of faith. Riches that the world knows nothing
of, water of eternal life in Christ, not the broken cisterns
of this world. That is what it is to be truly
blessed of God in believing this truth. Amen.