Well, good morning, everyone.
We're going to read this morning from the prophecy of Isaiah chapter
51. Isaiah chapter 51. Can I say that it's a delight
to be here with you this morning and to be sharing in your worship
and your fellowship? The Lord's people are bound together
in his union wherever they might be. Isaiah chapter 51 speaks
to us of the messianic promises of God to his people in the Old
Testament. Let's read from verse one, Isaiah
chapter 51 and verse one. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the
rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence
ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
and unto Sarah that bare you. For I called him alone, and blessed
him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion,
he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her
wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the
Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found
therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Hearken unto
me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for a law shall
proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light
of the people. My righteousness is near, my
salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me,
and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look unto the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment. And they that dwell therein shall
die in like manner. But my salvation shall be for
ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto
me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is
my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall
eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like
wool. But my righteousness shall be
forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days, in the generations
of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried
the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths
of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore, the
redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. For they shall
obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee
away. Aye, even I am he that comforteth
you. Who art thou that thou shouldst
be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which
shall be made as grass? And forgettest the Lord thy Maker,
that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations
of the earth, and has feared continually every day because
of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the
oppressor? the captive, exile, hasteneth,
that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit,
nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God, that
divideth the sea, whose waves roared. The Lord of hosts is
his name. And I have put my words in thy
mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that
I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth
and say unto Zion, thou art my people. Awake, awake, stand up,
O Jerusalem, which hath drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup
of his fury. Thou hast drunken the dregs of
the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. There is none to guide
her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth, neither is
there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that
she hath brought up. These two things are come unto
thee. who shall be sorry for thee? Desolation and destruction,
and the famine, and the sword, by whom shall I comfort thee?
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets,
as a wild bull in a net, they are full of the fury of the Lord,
the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou
afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. Thus saith thy Lord
the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people. Behold,
I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the
dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shalt no more drink it again. but I will put it into the hand
of them that afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, bow down,
that we may go over, and thou hast laid thy body as the ground
and as the street to them that went over. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. The Lord Jesus Christ was a man
of faith. Perhaps it ought not to surprise
us that he was a man of faith, but it does us good to reflect
upon this characteristic of our Saviour. He was a man who had
faith in his God. As a man, he believed in God. As a man, he believed God. He trusted his father's word
and he sought in all his ways to honour and obey God in all
things. The Lord Jesus Christ believed
the promises of God and he believed. that God would do as he said
he would do. Certainly, the Saviour's faith
was not like our faith. Our faith is partial, it is feeble,
it is variable. We say that we believe, but often
we doubt and we fret and we worry. the Lord Jesus Christ, he believed
perfectly. He trusted his father's words
emphatically. He had a perfect faith. Nevertheless, it was Christ's
own faith. The man Christ Jesus had faith
in God, and we call it the faith of Christ. Now there are a number
of examples which we might draw upon in our thoughts concerning
this faith that the Lord Jesus Christ had as a man in his father
and in the promises and in the word of his father. For example,
the Lord, when he was a child, when he was a boy of just 12
years of age, he knew that he had a special commission from
his father. He believed that he had a task
to do, a work to do, that fell to him alone. And he acted upon
that belief. so that when he was taken up
to the temple by his parents, he was found there in the temple
reasoning and questioning with the teachers and with the scribes
there in the temple. His parents, not knowing where
he was, remonstrated with him. Don't you know that we would
be concerned for your absence? The Lord Jesus Christ spoke those
words that testified to his awareness of his greater calling. Wist
ye not that I be about my Father's business? I have a job to do.
And even at the age of 12, the tender age of 12, the Lord Jesus
Christ trusted and believed in the purposes of God his Father. Later, when his own ministry
began, when he was around the age of 30, we discovered that
the Lord was very quickly taken and went into the wilderness. He was taken into the wilderness
by the Spirit, and there he began a period of 40 days without food. He fasted for 40 days in the
wilderness. And this was a period of testing
for the Lord. The Lord had a physical body
just like ours. He was a man just like us. And for 40 days, he went without
food. During that time, Satan thinking perhaps he was most
vulnerable, thinking perhaps he was at his weakest, came to
him and tested and tried him. The Lord Jesus Christ resorted
to the promises of God. He demonstrated there in that
situation, in the face of these temptations that came from Satan,
that he trusted the Word of God, that he believed the promises
of God. Satan offered him his heart's
desire. Satan said to him, look what
your body craves for, look what your mind desires. I can satisfy
you, I can give these things to you. The Lord Jesus Christ
turned to Satan and he said, man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Our Saviour believed in the Word
of God. He trusted his Father. Throughout his ministry, the
Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly stressed that God, his Father,
who had sent him into the world with a mission, with a ministry,
with a purpose, he was true. God in heaven is true. True and trustworthy. dependable, reliable, deserving
of the faith and trust and belief of his people. In Psalm 31, a
lovely messianic psalm, There, our Saviour declares in Psalm
31 verse 14, But I trusted in thee, O Lord, I said, Thou art
my God. In John chapter 17 and verse
25, there the Lord Jesus Christ again addressing his Father in
that lovely high priestly prayer of his on behalf of his church
and people. He says, O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee. But I have known thee, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus, the God-man. He trusted
his Father. He believed in his Father. He
knew that one in whom he believed. Later, the Pharisees, the very
enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, turned those characteristics,
those qualities, against the blessed Saviour. They mocked
Him as He hung on the cross. They said of Him in Matthew 27
and verse 43, He trusted in God. He leaned upon God. He rested
on God. In fact, the word in the original
appears to be, he rolled upon God. Such was his dependence,
such was his leaning upon God. He trusted in God. Let him deliver
him now, if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ was a man
of faith. He trusted in his Father. He trusted in the word of his
Father. He trusted in the will and the
purpose and the promises of Almighty God. But perhaps one of the strongest
testimonies that we have to the exercising of the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the way in which it was put to the test,
if you will, is discovered for us in his experience in the Garden
of Gethsemane. And it is to that that I want
us to turn our thoughts at this time. It was there in the Garden
of Gethsemane, as it were on the eve of his suffering and
his death, as he there knelt before God, as he prayed that
prayer of such strength and such moment and such significance,
there as he in that solitary place in the darkness anticipated
the drinking of what he called the cup of suffering. In scripture, a man's lot or
the portion that he must experience or endure is often described
in terms of a cup, a cup. Sometimes these are good experiences,
And the scriptures speak of a cup of salvation and a cup of consolation,
a cup of blessing. But more often, the cup, the
analogy, the metaphor of a cup describes God's terror. We're told of a cup of judgment,
a cup of fury, a cup of indignation and wrath, a cup of trembling,
a cup of astonishment and desolation, a cup of suffering. And it is
to this cup, this cup of astonishment and desolation, this cup of judgment
and indignation, that the Lord is referring to in the Garden
of Gethsemane when he speaks of the cup of suffering. In John
18, verse 11, the Saviour says, The cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? Let us just take a moment and
remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus Christ deserved no judgment. The Lord deserved no terror in
his soul, no desolation in his soul. In himself he was perfect. In himself, he was without sin.
As the God-man in his humanity, there was no wrongdoing. There was none who would convince
him of sin. He was perfect in all his ways. He was obedient to God in all
his ways. There was nothing lacking in
him. As far as God was concerned,
the law of God found nothing in the Saviour that it could
criticise or condemn. and yet this cup was passed to
him. This cup of terror, this cup
of wrath and fury, this cup of desolation was given into the
hand of the Lord Jesus Christ and he declares emphatically,
this cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? The Lord Jesus Christ knew this
cup was part of his covenant agreement in that eternal contract
that had been established between the persons of the Godhead, where
God the Father, for the love of a people that he desired to
unite to himself, committed them into the hands of Christ that
he might fulfil every good on their behalf, that he may become
their protector and their preserver, their redeemer and their deliverer. and that God the Holy Spirit
would undertake to sanctify that people, to set them apart, to
identify them from amongst all the men and women of the world,
all the men and women of Adam's race, and that he would preserve
them in Christ and deliver them to the Father and to the triune
God as a preserved, protected and delivered people. The Lord
Jesus Christ was given these people in eternity by his Father,
given them to look after, and he undertook in that covenant
and in that contract to fulfil every obligation of theirs as
their surety and as their substitute. These people are called in Scripture
the elect of God, the remnant people, the chosen of God. his
little flock. And the Lord Jesus Christ became
surety and substitute for that little flock. As a surety, he
paid all that they owed. As a substitute, he endured all
that they deserved. That punishment that fell to
them as sinners he undertook to carry. That judgment that
was rightly theirs as those who were as children of wrath, he
undertook to bear. And the Lord Jesus Christ, on
behalf of his people, satisfied both of those obligations of
suretorship and substitution. He represented his people in
everything that they required. What they failed to do in the
worship of God, he fulfilled vicariously. all that they deserved
by way of punishment, he endured substitutionally. And it is here,
as our substitute, in the garden of Gethsemane, anticipating the
cup of suffering, that we find the Lord Jesus Christ, bowed
down there upon his knees in the garden. Let us ask a question
for a moment. Let us ask about this cup of
suffering. Let us ask about the contents
of this cup. There is a verse in the prophecy
of Nahum. It is speaking about the judgment
of God upon Nineveh, the great city, but it is speaking about
the judgment of God essentially upon sin and wickedness. And here's what it says, verse
two of Nahum, chapter one. It says, God is jealous and the
Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. These are solemn words indeed,
and they speak to us about the holy indignation of God. Those who speak to us today about
God being a God of love, speak in a sense only partially For
the Lord God is a God of love, but he is also a God of judgment,
a God of justice, a God of vengeance, a God of wrath. The holiness
of God demands that we understand both of these aspects of our
God. He is a holy God first of all,
and he is a God of love to those who are his people. and a God
of judgment and wrath and fury against those who are his enemies. Luke chapter 21 and verse 22
speaks of the days of God's judgment. It says, these be the days of
vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. God's judgment here, here called
is vengeance. And every debt, every obligation
must be paid to satisfy judgment. It must be paid to the uttermost. There will be no overlooking
of sin. There can be no setting aside
of wickedness. and rebellion against God. The
vengeance of God, the revenge of God, the judgment of God must
be satisfied to its completion. God must be appeased for his
offended holiness. Paul, the apostle, asks, is God
unrighteous who taketh vengeance? And God himself takes this to
himself. One of the verses that I have
found to be particularly comforting over my own Christian experience
is that verse where the Lord instructs his people not to seek
revenge for themselves, not to take action themselves, to endeavour
to right wrongs, to endeavour to get even, to avenge themselves
against their enemies and against those who cause them trouble.
The Lord's people have to be gentle, gentle like doves. The Lord's people have to be
loving to their neighbours. They have to be good examples.
They are to treat others as they would have them treat themselves. And yet the Lord promises that
he will hold all men to account for everything that they do,
especially those things that are done grievously to his little
flock. Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord. That is a terrifying statement
for anyone to hear that is outside of the Lord Jesus Christ and
who is not a partaker of the love of God. Vengeance is mine,
I will repay, it's a promise. Every sin will be accounted for. Every wrong, every transgression
will be dealt with. every wicked word, every evil
thought, every deed against God and his people. I do believe
that men and women today have little conception, little idea
of the repercussions of their sin and what awaits them in eternity. That separation, that darkness,
that blackness of darkness forever, that Judgment that will fall
upon men in that place where the worm turneth naught. Depart
from me, ye wicked, into everlasting darkness. there is indeed an
everlasting punishment for sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
about it himself on many occasions, and particularly in Matthew 25,
we encounter it there. The Lord talks about, depart
from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. prepared for the devil
and his angels. Verse 41 of that chapter. And
we find that in various places the idea of this eternal suffering,
this everlasting suffering is set up by the Lord. And that
nature of the suffering, that everlasting dimension is something
that I want us to note. This cup of fury, this cup of
indignation and wrath, this cup of trembling, this cup of astonishment
and desolation, the cup of suffering that the scripture speaks about,
it is a cup of everlasting punishment for sin. Galatians chapter six and verse
seven says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Well might the Scriptures
talk about fleeing from the wrath that is to come. Now remember, we've already said
that the Lord Jesus Christ had no sin of his own, yet he had a cup. a cup of suffering
given to him by his father, a cup, we're told, that astonished and
desolated his soul. The cup which my father hath
given me, shall I not drink it? And this is the cup of suffering
taken, as it were, from the hands of the church and placed into
the hands of Christ their substitute. This is the cup that should have
been drunk This eternal, this everlasting punishment should
have been drunk by the church, should have been drunk by those
who are the members of that church, that remnant people, that elect
people, that little flock, and yet it is being given to another. A representative has stood up,
one who will take their place, one who has taken that cup in
his own hand. and who has agreed to drink it
on their behalf. It is a cup of eternal separation,
a cup of judgment and a cup of hellfire. It is that cup that
the men and women of this world will drink to all eternity in
that place of separation and darkness and suffering. It is the cup of the wrath and
the fury of God. And yet for his people, the Lord
Jesus Christ willingly drank this cup to its dregs. I do not say he did so joyfully,
but he did so obediently. He did not do it casually, but
he did it resolutely. He did not do it easily, but
he did it boldly. Perhaps I've mentioned to you
before that that verse in John 18, when the Lord Jesus Christ
came out of the garden of Gethsemane, when that mob of men with sticks
and spears and swords came to arrest him. There in the darkness
of that garden as that mad mob sought to take him, we're told
in solemn, almost hushed terms, Jesus, verse 4 of John chapter
18, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon
him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? I don't know if there is an indication
of greater bravery, more resoluteness in all the world, than that moment
there in the garden when the Lord Jesus Christ went out to
face his enemies and stood before them. We're told in scripture,
knowing all things that should come upon him, and said unto
them, whom seek ye? What then are we to make of the
Lord's question in the garden concerning this cup of suffering? In Matthew chapter 26 and verse
39, we're told that the Lord went a little further. He had
gone into the garden with his disciples. He had taken Peter,
James, and John particularly aside. He had asked them to pray
for him and with him. And then we're told he went a
little further, fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as thou wilt. Let me ask you a question. Do
you think here in this prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ was
asking for a way out? Do you think he was asking if
it's possible that there's another way that I don't have to suffer,
that I don't have to die? Do you think this suggests or
implies a reluctance on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ to go
to the cross and to suffer? I honestly do not think so. The Saviour could say to Pilate,
When questioned about his role and his purpose, he could say,
to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ knew from
eternity that this was the great culmination of his work. This was what everything was
driving towards. Earlier in his ministry he had
spoken to his disciples and in Matthew chapter 16 verse 21 he
says, he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be
raised again the third day. And that was the burden also
of the prophets concerning the Messiah. Here I think we understand
something of the great test of the Lord's faith. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that
he had to suffer. But he also knew that that cup
of suffering which he was called upon to drink was a cup of eternal
suffering. It was a cup of suffering that
his people must endure to all eternity if one were not found
worthy to drink it on their behalf. And the Lord Jesus Christ here
was recognising that he might well have to drink that cup to
all eternity himself on their behalf and was willing to do
so if that was what was required by God because of the holiness
of God and the wrath of God against sin. The Lord Jesus Christ had
faith that this cup would indeed pass from him. That that eternity
of suffering that the men and women of this world who are outside
of Christ must endure would be concentrated, as it were, into
these hours upon the cross. and would rest upon his soul,
the soul of the God-man, until he had absorbed, until he had
soaked up, until he had taken all of God's wrath and propitiated
all of that wrath. And the cup, fully drained, would
pass from him. This cup of suffering must be
completely drained to its dregs. Only then could it pass from
him. An eternity of wrath must be
endured. A furious, vengeful trembling. A cup of astonishment and eternal
desolation must be drained. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his
request to his father that the cup passed from him, was humbly
asking that his father would give him strength to endure,
to sustain him, to accomplish the drinking of that cup to its
complete end. He needed grace to accomplish
his glorious purpose. And he asked his father in faith
that he would let this cup pass from him and that he would be
raised again that third day. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Isaiah chapter 50 because there's a lovely little phrase there
in verse five that I want to direct your attention to. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse five. We read there, the Lord God hath
opened mine ear. and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away my back. That's telling us that the Lord
Jesus Christ was willing. He was not forced, but he was
willing to go with the Lord in his judgment. and he did not
turn away his back, he bared his back. I gave my back to the
smiters, verse six, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. Look at verse seven. For the
Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded,
Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that
I shall not be ashamed. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ? that there at that moment
when he bared his back to the smiters, when he opened his soul
to that cup of suffering, when the wrath of God's fury and wrath,
when the cup of God's fury and wrath poured in upon his soul,
the Lord Jesus Christ says, the Lord God will help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. There's something lovely there
in these words, and it may well be that this is one of the aspects
of the coming of the angel that is spoken of in that passage
concerning the Lord's time in the Garden of Gethsemane, there
was an angel sent to him from heaven. That angel came to help
him. The angel did not mitigate his
suffering, he did not lessen his suffering, but he upheld
him under that suffering. It was a testimony of God the
Father to his son that there would be a help granted and that
the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ as it undertook that suffering
there on the cross would be sustained to the enduring of an eternity
of fury, astonishment, and desolation. Luke 22, 43 says, there appeared
an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. I have heard
little mentioned about that angel who thus shared in the Lord's
suffering. And perhaps rightly so, for we
would not desire to detract from the suffering of the Lord at
all. But what a privileged angel he was. And how deep, and how
extensive, and how intense must have been the weight of that
fury upon the soul of our blessed Saviour during those hours upon
the cross. forsaken of God and man, bearing
the sin of his people, smarting under the sting of God's rod,
pierced by the sword of divine justice. Psalm 22, speaking about
this time of the Lord upon the cross, describes it in terms
of the Lord's body being crushed by bulls, being mauled by lions,
being savaged by dogs. an eternity of hell, for every
elect soul was distilled, was concentrated, and poured like
a flood upon the perfect holy soul of the Lamb of God. how the faith of our Saviour
must have been tested as to whether such suffering could ever stop,
whether such a cup would ever pass, whether God's wrath might
ever be abated. Would the vengeance of God subside? In the midst of his suffering,
the Lord Jesus Christ cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He was in a pitiful state. He
was desolate. He was friendless. He was forsaken. He was in a lonely, lonely place. But there is a beautiful, precious
verse granted to us and to our Saviour in Psalm 22 and verse
24. Listen to what it says. For he
hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto
him, he heard. That's speaking in messianic
terms from the Psalms of the way in which God heard his son
as he cried out from the cross. Yes, the son cried out, why hast
thou forsaken me? And when that cry went out, we're
told that the Lord God heard his son. He hath not despised
nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he
hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. Do you hear the Lord's plaintive
cry, My God, my God? Then hear too his Father's response
of praise and approbation. What does the Father say of the
Son? This is my dearly beloved son. He says, it is finished. The Lord says it is finished
upon the cross. And the father says in reply,
as it were, as an echo from heaven. It is finished. It is all over
now. Your work, my son, is complete. Your sacrifice, my son, is successful. Your blood has availed for the
people. Your death is sufficient. Now rest. I am well pleased. Our saviour trusted his father. He had faith that the cup would
pass. He believed the covenant promises
of peace and he was vindicated there upon the cross. He would
rest for a few days and then he would be raised in triumph
to a glorious inheritance and he would take as it were the
souls of his people with him and enter into the presence of
God with his trophy. These are the blessed accomplishments
of our Saviour. Is not this the meaning of Paul
when he declares in Galatians 2, verse 16, knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ? Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Paul is telling us here that
Our justification, our acceptance with God, the righteousness that
we have with God the Father, the ground of acceptance that
we have with God the Father is not based on anything that we
do, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,
but we are justified. by that righteousness of God
bestowed freely through the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. It was those promises that Christ
had faith in that is the ground of our hope and the ground of
our acceptance. It was those very promises that
Jesus Christ believed in that enables us to receive those great
gifts of God's righteousness and His grace. In Philippians chapter three,
verse nine, the apostle re-emphasises this thought. Being found in
him, he says, that is, we are united together with Christ.
We are in union with the one who died. As he died for us,
we died in him. As he was raised from the dead,
so we are raised together in him. As he is seated in glory,
in triumphant splendour, so we are seated in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Paul says, being found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Those covenant promises upon
which Christ's faith was fixed, the faithfulness of God the Father,
the acceptableness of the sacrifice that he would make, the preciousness
of the blood, the sufficiency of the lamb for the redemption
of his people. These were the great truths that
God had spoken in eternal covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ had
believed and had trusted upon. and those promises, that faith
had inspired him to go to the cross for the sake of his people. Our own faith is weak, it is
hesitant, it is fickle, but it is founded upon the very same
promises as our Saviour's faith saw. Our justification and righteousness
with God flows from the same rock. It is based upon the same
ground and it is to the same end as our Saviour's faith. Such is our union with our Saviour
that the very faith we are given as a gift from God the Holy Spirit
is the faith of Christ. in its nature and in its object,
for he is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the source
of our faith and the end of our faith. His work is the focus
of our faith. His accomplishments, the ground
of our faith and the covenant promises of God, the reward of
our faith. We possess the righteousness
of God in Christ and we do so by faith. Lord, grant us a greater
view of our Saviour this morning. Grant us a fuller understanding
of all he has accomplished and secured. Grant us increased trust
and confidence in the promises of our God, who is ever faithful
and ever true. Amen.