I suppose the ridiculous tomfoolery
of religious people and religious organizations is never more manifest
than it is during Christmas season and Easter. All kinds of stuff
goes on, just all kinds of stuff. Between now and next Monday,
everybody around the world, folks in churches will be having special
Christmas services. playing their annual religious
Christmas games and living Christmas trees and Christmas plays and
Christmas cantatas and so on. Many will gather in church houses
Sunday morning, Sunday night, and even Christmas Day to have
a reading or a telling of the Christmas story. In fact, the
tomfoolery has already begun Sunday afternoon. Most every
Sunday afternoon, I get home and sit down in my easy chair,
and while Shelby's fixing sausage and eggs and biscuits and gravy,
I flip through the channels looking for something of some interest,
waiting on lunch. I sat down Sunday afternoon.
The first thing that popped up was sickening, laughable, and
shocking. There's a big, big, big church
out in Texas. And I don't think I'd ever seen
the place before. But when I saw what was going
on, I said, Shelby, you got to look at this. You won't believe
this. They had put on a huge, expensive, very expensive production,
and they were telling the Christmas story. The preacher came out
dressed in a white suit, white shoes, white tie, white shirt,
and had angel's wings on his back. And then they, he's telling
the story, pretending to fly, and he looked a little like loafers
anyway, but it was just, I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe
it, couldn't believe it. But that's the nonsense that
goes on with the sad charade, the farce of religion in our
day. I decided then, I'm gonna try
to tell you the Christmas story, but from a slightly different
perspective. Turn with me, if you will, to John chapter one.
The Christmas Story, that's my title. But you're going to hear
the Christmas story as few people in this world have ever heard
it. I am thankful that at this season of the year, God and his
providence has arranged so that all the world is forced to acknowledge
the fact that Jesus Christ, the son of God, came into this world
in human flesh. Everybody is compelled to acknowledge
that event that took place 2,000 years ago. While our minds are
naturally turned to the fact of our Savior's incarnation,
I want by the Spirit of God to once more tell you the old, old
story of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, as it's set forth in the Word
of God. Now, it is given to us in many places and summarized
in many places throughout the Scriptures. Let's just read the
first 14 verses of John's Gospel. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God whose name was John, The same came for a
witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him
might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
him not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. As a gospel preacher, this is
my great desire and my resolute determination. I'm determined
every time I preach to tell the same story over and over again
and again. This is my message. I have no
other. Wherever I go, to whomsoever
I may preach, this is my responsibility and it's my delight. I never
tire of telling the story of Jesus Christ, His love, His grace,
His glory, and His redemption. To me, to tell you the same thing,
is not grievous, and for you, it's profitable. I never tire
of preaching of the riches and the glory and the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and if you're gods, I know you never tire of
hearing about the Redeemer. If you love someone, you never
tire of hearing about them. You never get tired of looking
at pictures of the one you love. You never get tired of hearing
someone talk about one you love. You want to get my attention,
just talk about my wife or my daughter or my son-in-law, my
grandchildren. I can get your attention just
the same way. All I've got to do is do some
bragging about somebody real near you, and you'll perk up
and pay attention. Oh, God, give us that same constant,
eager interest to hear about our Redeemer. Our sons and daughters,
and you who are yet without Christ, need to hear this story. Need
to hear it often. Those who do not know the Savior
must be told who He is, what He did, and why He did it. And I know if God's pleased to
save anyone, He'll do it by the preaching of the cross of our
Lord Jesus. Those of you who are in your
sunset years, Still need to hear this glorious old, old story
and hear it often. We need comfort. God said, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. And there's nothing in this world
so comforting as the knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified. We need strength. And nothing
strengthens our souls like the grace of God in Christ. We need
assurance. Brother Todd and I were talking
a good while this morning, early. It's a matter of assurance. Nothing
gives assurance like the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look for assurance somewhere
else and you'll never have it. If you get it, it will just be
a fake. Assurance comes from looking to Christ the Lord. And
these cold, cold, icy hearts of ours need reviving. And nothing
revives the heart like the love of Christ for our souls. I've
been preaching the gospel now for more than 50 years, but I
never look for something new to preach. I've preached in almost
every English-speaking country in the world, and some that aren't. I've preached all across the
length and breadth of this land. in houses and in barns and fields
and in the streets. I preach to a few folks and many
folks and everywhere I preach the message is always the same.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I never look for something new
to preach. As a young preacher, I remember the days you'd come
up, time to start getting ready to preach, and you're just so
fearful of saying the same things. You try to find something unusual,
something different. What foolishness, what foolishness. I leave it to folks who are concerned
about religious trivia to debate religious trivia. As for me and
my house, the house where I'm the father and the house in which
I'm the pastor, we will serve the Lord. In this place, as God
enables us, we will worship God in the spirit. We will rejoice
in Christ Jesus. We will place no confidence in
the flesh and we'll employ nothing but gospel preaching for the
building of God's church and God's kingdom. And I make this
pledge to you as I have on many occasions in the past. as often
as we come together in this place, whatever the reason. When we
open this book and I stand in this place, I don't care for
coming for worship service, for a wedding or for a funeral, you're
going to hear the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. The
message of this book, the message, the singular message of this
book is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The story of redemption,
grace and salvation is the story of Christ Jesus the Lord. read portions in the book of
Acts I'm going to refer to. Acts chapter 13 is a summary
of the whole message of Holy Scripture. That whole chapter
is all about the history of redemption and grace, salvation in Christ
Jesus the Lord. As I tell you this story tonight,
I'll give it to you in six parts. Every good story begins with
a good plot. Got a planning. Every story starts
that way. I like to tell stories, as you
know. I especially like to tell true stories that have some meaning.
But a good story begins with a plot. And the plot for this
story was drawn up in the council chambers of Almighty God before
the world began. look at II Timothy chapter 1.
The story begins in the covenant of grace, that covenant made
between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost before
time began. You'll recall Moses, in Exodus
32, asked the Lord, said, I beseech thee, show me now thy glory. And this is what the Lord God
said to Moses. I will be gracious. That's God's determination. What a blessed determination
it is. God Almighty determined for His glory to be gracious,
to be gracious to sinners such as you and I are. Once the determination
was made, and I use that Phrase cautiously, and I will give explanation. Because there wasn't a time when
God did something. He uses language to accommodate
our puny brains. But once the determination was
made, God said, I will be gracious. An election was made. He chose
a people in Christ Jesus. Paul said, thanks be unto God. who from the beginning hath chosen
you to salvation through sanctification and belief of the truth. Look
here in 2 Timothy 1.9. Paul is wrapping up his ministry. This is his last epistle to this
young man he dearly loved, his son in the ministry, his son
in the faith. He said, now this is what this
business of preaching is all about. This is what this business
of serving God is all about. It's telling folks that God hath
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
our works. but according to his own purpose,
his own sovereign determination and grace. This purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus
Christ. who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. He said, God
saved us before the world was in Jesus Christ the Lord. And
when we come to experience God's grace in time, he brings to light
that which he did for us in eternity in covenant grace in Jesus Christ
the Lord. And it is this gospel of God's
free, sovereign, eternal grace in Christ, our covenant head
in surety that we proclaim unto men. this gospel and only this. We know that God does not and
did not do these things in a sequential manner. He's God. Before Him,
time is nothing. But to accommodate our puny brains,
the Lord God uses the language that we've just read. We can't
comprehend the fact of God's everlasting love His determination
to save, His election, and His predestination as instant, imminent,
eternal acts of God. Not something He did or is doing
or shall do, but that which He is doing, He has always been
doing and always shall do. He is God, infinite and eternal. So the Lord God, determination
to save, to be gracious, was faced with a dilemma. I call
it the dilemma of grace. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? You'll never understand anything
about redemption, grace, and salvation until you find the
answer to that question. How can God, as he declared to
Moses back there in Exodus 33, both forgive iniquity, transgression,
and sin, and by no means clear the guilty? He spoke both things. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. How can
God both punish sin and punish the sinner to the full satisfaction
of justice and at the same time forgive sin and forgive the sinner
because of his sin? How can that be done? Our Lord
God tells us that he in covenant mercy, according to his purpose
of grace in eternity, in the Lord Jesus Christ, as he stood
forth in that covenant, as our covenant head, our surety, our
substitute, the Lord God looked on him and said, then is he gracious
unto him, deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found
a ransom. This is the Father's will, our
Savior said. This is His will, that everyone
that He gave me come to me, and him that comes to me shall have
everlasting life. I'll raise him up at the last
day. This is the will of God. It is the will of God to save
His people for the glory of His grace through the doing and dying
of Jesus Christ, the sinner's substitute. And the Lord Jesus
Christ stood forth and assumed total responsibility for us. I haven't said that like it needs
to be said. He assumed total responsibility
for His people, as our covenant surety before the world was,
so that He says, them also I must bring. I must bring. That's a strong word. Can it
be said that the Son of God must do something? that he absolutely
must do something. He said them also, I must bring. How come? Because I'm responsible
for them. I'm responsible for them. The
Lord gave his sheep into the hands of the shepherd and the
shepherd said, I'll bring them home. He gave his people into
the hands of the surety, and the surety said, I will bring
them to you in the perfection of my righteousness, my obedience,
my atonement, my glory, and I will bow before you in the last day,
and so, lo, say, lo, I and the children which thou hast given
me. The Lord God then trusted his
son. He trusted his son. The triune
Jehovah put in the hands of his son, our surety, all his will,
all his purpose, all his people, all his glory, and said, go do
it! And the son said, lo, I come
to do thy will, O my God. As Mark read to us just a little
bit ago in Hebrews 4, When the covenant of grace was made, once
it was established, the whole story of redemption was finished. It was written out in a book
and sealed with seven seals that could not be broken. Sealed with
seven seals that could be opened and revealed only by the doing
and dying of Christ the crucified Lamb. You can read about the
book in Revelation chapter 5 and in Revelation chapter 10. When
the story began, it was concluded. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world, so that when God accepted Christ
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world as our substitute.
He accepted His people in Him and they were called and predestined
and justified and sanctified and glorified in eternity in
Jesus Christ the Lord. So there is never a time, never
a time when God did not behold us in His Son. Now hear me, there
never shall be a time when God does not behold us in his son. Some years ago, I've told you
this in the past, Brother Scott Richardson and I were preaching
down in Rocky Mount, Virginia at a meeting, and he preached
on that passage in Exodus where the Lord God said, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. And Scott could milk things pretty
good, as you know, and he milked it real good. He had just come
from visiting his brother who lost his mind, an old man in
a rest home. And he didn't know Scott, didn't
know himself. And Scott said, the book doesn't
say when you see the blood, it said when I see the blood. He
said, the time may come when you'll come to visit Brother
Scott, and you'll come and rest home, and I'll be sitting tight
in a wheelchair so I won't fall out, drooling all over myself,
and I don't know who I am or who you are, and I won't be able
to see the blood. But God saw the blood before
I saw it. He saw it when I saw it, and
he sees it when I can't see it. He looks on us in His Son, always,
even when we fail in our Father Adam. The whole plot of the story
was so unutterably fixed from the beginning. No changes shall
ever be made to it. The plot of the story is itself
the story. Who will be saved? God's elect. How will they be saved? By the
doing and dying of the Lord Jesus. What will secure the salvation
of every chosen sinner? The absolute rule of him who
is the Christ into whose hands the Lord God has given the reigns
of the universe. All right, that's the plot. Here's
the introduction. The entire Old Testament, the
introduction to the story, the whole Old Testament. When Paul
tells us that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
he's talking about the Old Testament Scriptures. Peter said later,
to him, give all the prophets witness. In Acts chapter two,
I've mentioned Acts 13 a little bit ago. In Acts chapter two,
Peter says, this is what the prophets were talking about.
In Acts chapter seven, Stephen summarizes the whole of Old Testament
history and tells us what God was doing, accomplishing redemption
by Christ Jesus the Lord. So that the whole book of God
speaks of him. Let me refresh your memories.
I sat down and jotted these thoughts out today. In Genesis, our Lord
Jesus is proclaimed as the woman seen. In Exodus, Lynch has been
talking to us about Christ the Passover lamb. In Leviticus,
he is set forth as a sin atoning sacrifice. In Numbers, we see
Christ the smitten rock. In Deuteronomy, he is that prophet
Moses spoke of who would come and whom his people would hear.
In Joshua, Christ stands forth as the captain of our salvation.
Judges he is the mighty judge the mighty deliverer of his people
in the book of Ruth He is Christ our kinsman Redeemer in the books
of Kings 1st and 2nd Samuel 1st and 2nd Kings 1st and 2nd Chronicles
Christ is the king the king of peace and of righteousness in
Nehemiah he is that one who restores all things in In Esther, he is
that advocate typified in Esther herself. In Job, he's the daysman
we must have between us and God. In the Psalms, every psalm speaks
of him because Christ is our song. He is that which gives
joy in our hearts, causing us to sing and make melody in our
hearts unto the Lord. In Proverbs, he is the wisdom
that Solomon portrays. In Ecclesiastes, he's the one
who teaches us that wisdom. Someday I'd like to preach through
the book of Proverbs. Shelby's asked me about it a
number of times. If I can Just get the direction of God's Spirit
to show you how that those wise adages, those wise proverbs that
Solomon was inspired to give us speak about more than just
civil, political, social life. They're talking about life in
Christ the Lord. He is our wisdom. In the Song
of Solomon, he is our beloved. The prophets speak of Christ
as the coming Messiah, and then he comes in the gospel, and in
the gospels we read about his incarnation, the God-man living
and dying. Acts speaks of him as the exalted
Lord and King. All the epistles tell us about
Christ, the head of the church, and all the direction he gives
to his church. The book of Hebrews speaks of
him as our great high priest. In the book of Revelation we
see him the worthy Lamb of God who rules and conquers all things. This is what I want you to see.
All the book talks about him. When you read this book, look
for Christ. He's there. He's there. I tell
preachers, young and old, all the time, don't ever come to
the pulpit and speculate about what a text may mean. I leave
my studies in my study. When I come here, I come here
with a message that I know is so. And I know what the book
is saying. I'm telling you what the Word
of God teaches. Every law in Israel pointed to
Christ the Lord. Every event recorded in the Old
Testament was brought to pass in God's providence and is recorded
as it's recorded in the book of God to teach us about Christ,
our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord. Every priest, his garments,
his services, his sacrifices, Even his washings and his miter
foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ. The tabernacle, the temple, the
ceremonies of the law, the covenants God made with men, all the services
of the tabernacle and temple speak of Christ the Redeemer.
Everything. Those skins that God made for
Adam and Eve, that's the righteousness of Christ. The sacrifice for
which those skins came, that's the sacrifice of Christ the Lamb
of God. That ark by which Noah saved
his family, that's the ark of salvation, Christ the Lord. That
mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, that's Christ, our mercy seat,
the propitiation for our sins. Everything in the Old Testament
and everything in the New speaks of Christ. His blood atonement
is that scarlet cord that runs through the pages of Holy Scripture,
binds it all together, and gives hope to sinners. The plot of
the story was laid in the Covenant of Grace. introduction was given
in the Old Testament. Now third, the body of the story
was written in the incarnation, the life, the obedience, and
the death of our substitute. Turn to Galatians chapter 4,
Galatians 4, verse 4, when the fullness of time was
come, fullness of time of all the things God had prophesied
in the Old Testament. The fullness of time, that is
the full accomplishment of the time until Christ should come
into the world. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, And He sent Him here for this purpose, to redeem them,
that is, to buy back by blood and to save by power them that
were under the law, that we, being redeemed by Him, might
receive the adoption of sons. When did He come? In the fullness
of time. Who sent Him? God sent His Son. How did it come? Made of a woman. God came here in human flesh. That babe laid in the manger. That babe nursing at his mother's
breast. that baby that had to be bathed
and clothed like any other baby. He's a real human being, God
in our flesh, but he is himself God, even as he lay in his mother's
womb, as he lay in the manger, even as he suffers on the cursed
tree. God revealed, manifest, made known in the flesh. So that
beholding Him by faith, in His face we see the very glory of
God. In Him we see the very fullness
of God. He was made of a woman, made
under the law, made subject to the law. Made to be obedient
to the law. Made under the law that he might
obey the law and bring in everlasting righteousness for sinners such
as we are. Sinners he represented by his
obedience to the law. Why did he come? To redeem them
that were under the law. Jesus Christ came into this world
for the purpose of laying down his life at Calvary in our stead. And what's the result? That we,
now it's possible for you and I to receive the adoption of
sons. To as many as received Him, we
read in John chapter 1, to them gave He the power to become the
sons of God. What does that mean? It means
He gave us the right to be the sons of God. And it means he
gave us the authority to be the sons of God. And it means he
gave us the power to call God our father with confidence, Abba
Father. He came to redeem them that were
under the law, that by his blood atonement, by his obedience unto
death, we might on the grounds of justice satisfied, receive
the adoption of sons. Now, here's the fourth thing.
The climax of the Christian story. is the death which our Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished at Calvary. Turn to two passages. Luke chapter
9 on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah are talking
to the Savior. And this is what they talk to
him about. Moses representing the law. Elijah representing
the prophets. All the law and prophets standing
there talking to Christ. These two men standing there
in the flesh on the Mount of Transfiguration as the Lord Jesus
is transfigured before them. Talking to him about something
specific. appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Spoke of his decease which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem. I find this interesting. I don't
know that I know all that it means. I'm sure I don't. That
word translated decease is the word exodus. Back there in the
second book of the Bible, the whole book about an exodus. The children of Israel making
their exodus out of Egypt. The children of God making their
exodus out of sin and death and bondage and hell into life everlasting. The Lord Jesus came into this
world to accomplish his death which is the exodus of his people. from death, the exodus of his
people from condemnation, the exodus of his people from the
curse, the exodus of his people into life everlasting. Now watch
this, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Our Lord Jesus
didn't just suffer, though he did at Jerusalem. Our Lord Jesus
was not simply crucified by the hands of wicked men, though He
was. Our Savior was not just slaughtered by the sword of divine
justice, though certainly He was. But our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world to do the will of God. And all his 33 years
through this world, he's marching toward Jerusalem. He's marching
as a mighty conqueror. And there at Jerusalem, he accomplished
death. He brought death to his full
accomplishment in our behalf. And by his death, triumphed over
death, hell, and the grave. Let's see it, John chapter 12.
John 12. Let's turn over a few pages. Verse 31. The Savior says now is the judgment
of this world. That word judgment might be translated
several ways and all of them correct. It might be translated
now is the crisis of the world, the turning point, the crucial
time, the climax. Somebody's been involved in a
terrible accident or sickness in surgery. And the doctors take
them back to the room and the family waits and doctors say,
this is the crucial time. This is the crucial time. This
is the time of crisis. Everything turns here. Everything
turns on this. This is the hinge of it all.
The sacrifice of Christ is the hinge of history. Everything
turns on this. The word might be translated,
now is the judgment of the world. That is the condemnation of the
world. It might be translated, now is the justification of the
world. That is the justification, the
righteousness of God's elect throughout the world. Read on.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Lord Jesus. It was prophesied in Genesis
3, 15, when He would come, the seed of the woman, He would crush
the serpent's head. He came here to crush the serpent's
head. And that's what he did at Calvary.
And when he comes in grace by the power of his atoning blood,
he crushes the serpent's head in his people. The Lord Jesus
is that one spoken of in Revelation 20 as that mighty angel who came
down from heaven and bound Satan with a great chain for a thousand
years, bound him throughout this gospel age. Read on here in John
12. He says, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. By the efficacy
of his blood atonement, by the power of his Holy Spirit, the
Lord Jesus says, if I be lifted up from the earth, signifying
the death that he should die, if I'm lifted up as Moses lifted
up that serpent on a pole, so I'm lifted up, and all men will
be drawn to me. Not every man in the world. but
all men without qualification, all kinds of men, all races of
men, all elect men throughout the world, and he draws them
irresistibly to himself. This is the climax of the story. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was
born at Bethlehem specifically for the purpose of dying at Calvary. Bethlehem means nothing without
Calvary. Bethlehem means nothing without
Calvary. Now, look at the conclusion of
the story. I'll give it to you in three
brief parts. After he died, three days later, the Lord Jesus was
raised from the dead. He came forth triumphant over
death, hell in the grave, being justified in the spirit. He arose
without sin to die no more. He arose to declare His people
to be justified. And we rising in Him, Peter says,
have ceased from sin. Sin no longer has power or dominion
over God's elect. Sin is no longer charged to Christ's
redeemed ones. And having accomplished redemption
for us, the Son of God ascended up into heaven. took his seat
at the right hand of the majesty on high. And the father said
to him in Psalm two verse eight, ask of me and I'll give you the
heathen for your inheritance. The savior said, father, glorify
thy son with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was. And he gave him the reigns of the universe. Thou has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. And his work of redemption being
finished, our savior, reigns king and priest forever upon
the throne of grace. But it's not done yet. His work
is not finished yet. His work of righteousness and
atonement is done. His work of obedience and propitiation
is done. But there is a day coming when
Christ will return. And when he comes again in the
brightness of his glory, the consummation of God's redemptive
purpose shall be accomplished. He comes, and the dead in Christ,
we're told in 1 Thessalonians, shall rise first. And then we,
which are alive and remain, shall be called up to meet the Lord
in the air. And as Christ comes again in his glory, all the world
and all the wicked, consumed with the brightness of his coming,
and he makes a new heavens and a new earth. And all the saints
of God, 10,000 times 10,000, descend with him upon the new
earth that he has made on our behalf for God's glory. To the
best of my ability, I've told you the Christmas story. The
story of redemption, grace, and salvation by Jesus of Nazareth,
the Christ of God. Now let me finish by declaring
the message of the story. I like to tell a story with a
message, a message. And when I tell a story, it has
a message. It's either something humorous
or something serious, but it always has a message. And the
Christmas story, the story of our Lord Jesus has this message. John chapter three. John chapter
three. Look at these two verses. Verse
35. The father loveth the son and
hath given all things into his hands. All things are in Christ. All righteousness, all salvation,
all grace, all mercy, all peace, all holiness, all sanctification,
all life is in Christ. And all the universe is in His
hands. All the universe in the hands
of Him who died in our stead. In His nail-pierced hands, God
has placed the reigns of the universe. Absolute monarchy is
His who loved us and gave Himself for us. Oh, Spirit of God, teach
me every day and every moment of every day so to look upon
all things in this world, they come to pass by the goodwill
of him that dwelt in the bush, him who was crucified in our
stead. Read on. He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. I find it amazing that men and
women look for reasons not to believe on the Son of God. I
find it amazing that God's children are often, often persuaded by
Satan to look somewhere else for peace and comfort and assurance,
to look to their obedience, to their holiness, to their Bible
reading, to their godliness, to their way of life, to their
obedience to the law. I don't care where you look.
I don't care where you look. Whatever it is you look to, to
give you hope. If it's not Christ, it's wrong.
If it's not Christ, it's wrong. And your hope will be but a delusion. Any assurance you derive from
such things will only make you mean-spirited and self-righteous. And that not being the case,
you look at those things with any degree of honesty and you
say, well, I'm not holy enough, I don't read my Bible enough,
I don't pray enough, I don't love people enough, I'm not kind
enough, I'm not generous enough. No, you're not. No, you're not. Never had been and never will
be, not in this world. But the book of God says, he
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. I don't know much. I'm not confident
about much. I know I talk a bigger game than
I practice, but I'm not confident about much. Of this I'm confident. I believe on the Son of God. I have no hope but Jesus Christ
the Lord. No righteousness but Him. No
atonement but Him. No acceptance with God but Him.
No holiness but Him. No sanctification but Him. No
access to God but Him. I believe on the Son of God.
And this is what it says in the last line. And he that believeth
not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Let us ever seek to make Him
known and press sinners everywhere to believe on the Son of God. If you haven't yet trusted the
Savior, believe Him now. Believe Him now. And if you believe
Him, go home with everlasting life in Christ the Lord. And that's the story. It's His
story. Altogether, His story. Amen.