Brother Frank Tate, pastor of
the Hurricane Road Grace Church in Ashland, Kentucky. He's gonna
bring the final message for this morning. God, where is he? Where
are you, Frank? There he is! I can't see beyond
my nose. All right, good to have you here,
brother. Come preach the gospel to us. I invite your attention this
morning to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. As your attorney, let
me express my thanks for the invitation. I count it a great
honor to be here, to be able to worship with you. And I thank
this congregation for all the work that you've done to be able
to put on this conference, give us a time to worship together.
into fellowship afterward, that ought not be a thankless job,
my thank you. I've titled the message this
morning, The Message of the Cross. Psalm 22 is commonly referred
to as the Psalm of the Cross. And really not because it gives
us all, so many at least, of the events of the cross, hundreds
of years before it happened, before Christ came. But this
psalm gives us the message of the cross. Why was Christ there? And what did he accomplish while
he was there? The psalm begins, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And it ends with it is finished. That's what the phrase that he
has done this literally translated is it is finished. In these 31
verses, Christ the Savior goes from untold agony to glorious
victory. He accomplished something great
in these 31 verses, and that's what I want us to see this morning.
My first point is this. What is the message of the cross?
The message of the cross is there is real suffering for real sin. Verse one. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent. Now this is Christ the Savior
speaking to his Father as he suffers, but he doesn't cry to
his Father, does he? He cries, my God, my God. Because now, he's not dealing
with his loving father. He's dealing with the hand of
God, the judge of all. And he is truly suffering. He's suffering like you and I
cannot imagine. And he prays to his father. But
he's not praying like we consider a refined prayer. He's roaring
like an injured lion. The lion of the tribe of Judah
is roaring in his suffering. Why hast thou forsaken me? God
the Son was truly forsaken of his father, forsaken. That must
have been his greatest suffering, his sole suffering that his father
forsook him. And we can understand, if we're
honest with ourselves, we can understand Judas forsaking and
betraying the Lord, can't we? If we're honest, we can understand
that. If we're honest, we can understand Peter forsaking and
denying the Lord. We can understand that. But the
father? The father forsaking his beloved
son? This is my beloved son, in whom
I'm well pleased. You hear him. And now the father's
forsaken him? Why? because there's real suffering
for real sin. Look at Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah
59, the father has made Christ the son sin for his people and
he's punishing the son in justice. He's giving his son just exactly
what he deserves. Isaiah 59 verse two. but your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear. Christ was forsaken at the cross
because he was made sin. This is not a paper shuffling
transaction. In reality, he was made sin,
and in justice, the Father forsook him. And this separation was
so complete that the Father would not hear the cry of Christ as
he suffered as a sacrifice for sin, because God will by no means
clear the guilty. Just like Brother Todd told us
last night, an innocent man is not suffering at the cross. A
guilty man is. The Father had made him guilty. Can I understand that? No, I
cannot. But how I rejoice in it. Oh,
how I rejoice, the sacrifice for sin. The Father poured out
His wrath for sin upon his son without a hint of mercy, without
a hint of love, and absolute pure justice. And the son cries,
not because he doesn't know why this is happening. No, he knows
why. He cries that you and I might understand why this is happening.
He knows why the father forsook him. Because God's holy. Look
at verse three. But thou art holy. O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. The father forsook his son. He
punished his son because God's holy. He must punish sin. And at Calvary he did. And the
real suffering of the Savior brought real salvation for all
of his people too. Their sin's gone. There's no
reason the father would not accept them. And do you know everyone
that God saved Everyone, they've all been saved the exact same
way. By God's grace, through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's true, I mean, it's easy
for us to understand, that's true of us, isn't it? Who live
after the cross. But you know, that's true for
all those who live before the cross too. Look at verse four.
Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted and thou didst deliver
them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted
in thee and were not confounded. Our fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, David, all these great men, great men of faith, they
were not saved by keeping the law. They were not saved because
they were any different than we are in the flesh. They were
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. They were saved by his blood.
They were saved through faith in Christ. They looked to Christ
as all their hope of salvation. They didn't look to those animal
sacrifices. They looked to the sacrifice
of Christ to put their sin away. Even before the cross? Absolutely
before the cross. They looked to Christ, the Lamb
slain, not just of Calvary's tree, but from the foundation
of the world. They looked to Him. They trusted
in Him. My friend, God can't change.
God didn't see His people one way one day and a different way
another day. No, He's always seen His people one way. in the
Lord Jesus Christ, washed in the blood of his sacrifice, cleansed
from all of their sin in Christ. Now, without a doubt, Christ
is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but the death of
Christ did have to happen in time, didn't it? And the death
of Christ happened in time. You know why? Because God purposed
it in eternity. So when those Old Testament believers
trusted in Christ, God delivered them. When they cried to God,
when they cried to God for mercy in Christ, they were delivered. They were made not guilty. That's
what the word confounded means. They were made not guilty. Because
Christ, their substitute, had been made sin for them. And by
his real suffering for sin, he put their sin away. By his sacrifice,
he put their sin and their guilt away. At the cross, their real
suffering, for real sin, and it accomplished real salvation
for God's elect. All right, here's my second point.
The message of the cross is the message of God's eternal will
and purpose for his people through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I understand the natural
man does not understand this. They can't comprehend it. By
nature, the natural man thinks this, Christ died on a cross
as a sacrifice to me. Man thinks that Christ died to
make us feel sorry for him, to draw some sort of emotional response
that might cause us to invite him into our heart, but not so,
not so. The sacrifice of Christ on the
cross is the eternal will, the eternal purpose of God for the
redemption of his elect by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at verse six. Hang on to your seat. But I am a worm and no man, a
reproach of men and despised of the people. This maybe begins to start to
give us some idea how greatly Christ our Savior suffered for
his people. It gives us some idea, we can't
understand it, but it gives us some idea how low the Son of
God sunk to redeem his people from their sins. The great I
Am said, I'm a maggot. That's what the word worm there
means. He said, I'm a maggot. Now we can't comprehend the distance
between I Am and a maggot. But I Am said, I'm a maggot. You know why the son of God had
to go that low to save his people from their sin? Because Marvin,
that's what we are, maggots. He sunk, he calls himself a maggot,
even lower than fallen man. He became something offensive
to his father so that he could save his people from their sin.
This maggot that is used here, was used by the Old Testament
Jews to, I guess even still the New Testament, I don't know when
they quit doing it, but they would take these maggots and they would
crush them to make a red dye that they would dye threads and
garments and stuff, they would dye them red. This is the very
maggot the Jews used to crush up to dye those threads red,
scarlet, that they used in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
Now every stitch, every detail of that tabernacle is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, even the maggot they used to crush
to make those red, those scarlet threads. He uses this word to
show us in every minute detail, everything happening here at
the cross is God's eternal will and purpose for the redemption
of his people. It's always been one way, never
by the law, but always by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gave us that in picture and all the Old Testament sacrifices
and the picture of the red threads in the tabernacle. And he shows
us that in crystal clear clarity at the cross. This is the will
of God. This is how God's gonna redeem
his people from their sin. But the natural man is so dead
and depraved and wicked and vile that instead of looking at this
miracle that Almighty God would kill his son to save the likes
of you and me, instead of thanking him for it. They despised and
rejected him for it. We're a mess, aren't we? Verse
seven. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the
lip, but they shake the head, saying, he trusted in the Lord
that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him. You know how the scribes and
the Pharisees mocked the Savior. They watched him laughing in
his agony. He saved others. Himself he cannot
save. That's true. That's true. He
couldn't save himself. He couldn't come down from the
cross because he was saving his people. He said he's the son
of God. Let's see if he'll accept him
now. Let's see if we'll have him now. Well, right now the Father's
not gonna hear him. But when this sacrifice is over,
When sin's been put away, he's gonna accept his son, and he's
gonna accept everyone he died for, too. Christ did not come
down from the cross to save himself, because this is why he came.
He came to this earth for this hour, this hour described in
Psalm 22. He came to die as a sacrifice
for sin. He came to die as a substitute
for his people. This is God's eternal will, verse
nine. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's
breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near, and there's none to help. God formed
his son in the womb of a virgin. And he brought that baby forth
in a live birth. Now, many babies died at that
time, but not this one. Mary brought her firstborn son
in live birth. This is the son of God in human
flesh, and he's not going to die in childbirth. He came to
die for the sin of his people. God brought him forth to be the
sacrifice for sin. And throughout his life on this
earth, the Father strengthened the Lord Jesus for the work that
he had to do. He gave him divine strength to
get the job done, to work out a perfect obedience that he would
give to his people, that God would make his people righteous.
He did everything he came to do, and he didn't die one second
before God's appointed time. How often did men try to take
him and kill him? He's standing right in front
of him. They're so angry, so I'm going to take you and kill
you. And suddenly they can't find him. They can't see him.
He just walks through their midst. What happened? His hour was not
yet come. They were powerless to do anything
opposed to the eternal will of God to redeem his people through
the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. They couldn't take him
and stone him. He had to hang upon a tree. bearing
the curse of the sin of his people. And nothing changed when his
hour did come. They didn't take him to the cross
against his will. He gave himself to be taken to
the cross. And when men finally did get
their hands upon the Son of God, you know what they did? They did what their wicked hearts
desired to do, yes. But I'll tell you what they did.
They accomplished God's will to a T. They couldn't keep the
law in one respect, not in any way. But at the cross, they accomplished
God's will in every jot and every tittle. You know why they did
that? To show us this is God's eternal
will, his purpose to redeem his people through the sacrifice
of Christ. Spurgeon writing about this, he said, is this prophecy
or is it history? Which is it? That's how precisely
they fulfilled God's will at Calvary. They did what God determined
before to be done. They did God's will. And hundreds
of years before the cross, God recorded everything that men
would say and do at the cross. So when it happened, we'd be
able to say, this was not the will of man. The cross is not
the will of man. The cross is the will of God.
The cross is not the defeat of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
ever let anybody make you feel sorry for Christ at the cross.
Don't feel sorry for him. He's not defeated. At the cross,
he is victorious. He accomplished the redemption
of his people. I do sorrow that he had to suffer
that for me. It's to my shame what he suffered.
He suffered everything I deserve. but I'm thankful for it. He accomplished
God's salvation. Verse 12, here's what men did. Many bulls have compassed me.
Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me
with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. All these
Pharisees and scribes, they thought they were so strong, didn't they?
They thought they were victorious when they surrounded and captured
the Lord Jesus. They got around him like a pack
of bloodthirsty animals, just in a frenzy. And the people doing
this, these are the religious leaders of today. This is the
scribes who wrote down this psalm. These are the psalms read in
the temple every Sabbath day. They should have known these
scriptures. They should have seen, they should have understood
what they were doing, what was going on. They didn't, did they? They didn't understand. Verse
16, for dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. These dogs are the dogs that
the Apostle Paul warned the Philippians about. These are religious leaders
without Christ. They're dogs. They're greedy
dogs. They're dogs just trying to fulfill the lust of their
own belly. Yeah, they look religious to the natural man, but I tell
you where this leads, every single It leads to an attempt to destroy
Christ and to lift up self. That's where it leads every time.
Verse 14, now this is the will of God being accomplished. I
am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax. It's melted in the midst of my
bowels. If the Lord Jesus is gonna die,
it's not because men took his life away from him, is it? No,
it's because he gave it up. He gave up the ghost. He laid
down his life. He is poured out like water,
but somebody else didn't do it. Isaiah said he poured out his
soul unto death. This is something that he did.
And when the Lord poured out himself like water, he dried
up and thirsted. Verse 15. My strength is dried
up like a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou
hast brought me into the dust of death. You know, we feel thirst,
there's a reason for that. It says we don't have enough
water in us. I love water. You know why Christ cried from
the cross? I thirst. It wasn't just because he was
thirsty for a cup of water. He thirsted for righteousness,
because he'd been made sin. He thirsted for his father's
presence because his father turned his back upon him. Now that's
told us here 1,000 years or however many years it was before the
Savior from the cross will cry, I thirst. So we know as he's
suffering there, he's fulfilling God's purpose, his eternal purpose
of redemption for his people. Verse 17, I may tell all my bones,
they look and stare upon me. All of our Lord's bones were
out of joint as he hung there upon the tree. They laid that
piece of wood down on the ground and laid him down upon it and
nailed his hands and his feet to that piece of wood. And they
picked it up. They had some sort of hole, I
guess, prepared for it. They picked that piece of wood
up and dropped it down in that hole. Oh, his body must have
wracked with pain. It seems like scripture is saying
at that time, just in that jolt, many of his bones were dislocated,
maybe more of them were dislocated the longer he hung there. But
as he was hung there, he said he stretched out so far, you
could just, you could count all his bones, you could see them
all. But not one bone was broken.
Not one. Because that was God's eternal
will and purpose. He gave us that picture of the
Passover lamb, didn't he? You take that lamb, you roast
All of it, his head, his legs, his partners there, have you
roasted all, but not a bone of us to be broken. Because it's
a picture of Christ, our Passover, sacrificed for us. Those dogs
that were so, in such a frenzy around our Lord, they realized,
oh, you know, normally it took days for someone to die of crucifixion. They thought, we can't have these
fellows hanging on the cross. on this Passover Sabbath. You
know, they're going to defile our religious day, you know,
like playing basketball on Sunday. You can't defile our day. So
we better send a soldier out there and break their legs so
they'll die faster and we can bury them out of sight. Well,
that soldier came and saw that man on the middle cross was already
dead. Well, you know, he thought, he just decided not to break
his legs. You know why he didn't break
the legs of that man on the middle cross? This is God's eternal
will. Not a bone of him will be broken.
But then he thought, you know what would be fun? I'm just gonna
shove a spear up in his side. You know why that just random
thought came to his mind? He thought it was a random thought.
Because he was fulfilling God's eternal will and purpose. Fulfilling
Zachariah's prophecy. They should look on me whom they've
pierced and mourn. Look at verse 18. They part my
garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Those executioners
there, normally, I guess from what I understand, part of their
pay was they would take the things that belonged to the person being
crucified. But they decided to throw dice to determine who would
get the garments of our Lord. His outer garment, we read, was
a garment woven from the top down, all in one piece. And the
soldier said, now if we tear that, divide it amongst ourselves,
we're just gonna be left with a pile of strings. So let's not
destroy it. We'll throw dice for it. Now
why did they do that? Fulfilling God's eternal will
and purpose. And here's the picture. This
is not just a random thing. I mean, it does show us this
is God's eternal purpose, but it shows us something else. Here's
the picture. The righteousness of Christ is all one piece. One
piece, woven from the top down. Woven from the top down, from
the son of God down. And it's one piece. It's not
added to by you and me. It's not patched up by you and
me. It's one piece. It'll never be torn. It'll never
be damaged. It's always perfect. It's the
righteousness that Christ gives to his people. Well, and the
Jews and the Romans, They had done everything that they could
think of to do. They finally had all their fun and really
what happened is when they did everything that the Lord determined
for them to do, suddenly there's a change in the tone of our Savior
as he speaks. Here's my third point. The message
of the cross proclaims the victory and the glory of Christ and his
suffering and death for his people. Verse 19. but be not thou far
from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to
help me. Deliver my soul from the sword,
my darling from the power of the dog. The Savior is not asking
the Father to just deliver him from suffering. He's already
prayed about that matter, hadn't he? And what did he pray? Father,
not my will, but thy will be done. So he's not asking the
Father just to deliver him, make the suffering stop. This is what
he's praying. Father, deliver my soul from
the sword of justice, but not until justice is satisfied. Raise
me again from the tomb, not just to raise me from the dead, but
raise me because justice has been satisfied, because my sacrifice
has put away all the sin laid upon me. Give me life and give
my people life, because this sacrifice has removed the sin
that offended you. It removed the sin that demanded
death. See, Christ isn't praying here
as a victim, is he? Even as he suffers, he's praying
as the almighty victor. He's accomplishing the salvation
of his people. And he prays that the Father
deliver him from the power of these religious dogs, but not
until God's purpose of redemption's been accomplished. The Savior
prays, deliver me. Deliver me from them when your
will is done. Deliver me because this is the
sacrifice that you've been waiting on. You've never been pleased
with all these animal sacrifices. These fellows are gonna leave
the cross and they're gonna go sacrifice a lamb on the Passover
day. God's never been pleased with
that sacrifice, those animal sacrifices. Our Savior in victory
says, Father, accept my sacrifice as the sacrifice that satisfies
your holy justice. This is everything you require.
Verse 21, he says, save me from the lion's mouth. For thou hast
heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Now Satan is this lion. He's been behind this all along. He's the one who moved in the
heart of Judas and the chief priest. He's the one that moved
in the heart of Pilate. And I'll tell you what Satan
accomplished in this day. He accomplished bruising the
Savior's heel. That's all he did. The Savior has crushed Satan's
head. He put his power away, put him
out of business. And he prays that the Father
deliver him from Satan's mouth, deliver him from the mouth of
that old lion. Because now Christ, even as he's
there nailed to the cross in what looks like the most helpless
situation you could be in, he's praying with all power and all
authority as the victor. That's what this place of the
unicorns means. It means the place of power and
authority. Now, the people in David's day,
I'm sure would have known what animal David was referring to. It's some sort of very powerful
animal with horns or tusks, something, you know, a lion or, not a lion,
a bull or a rhinoceros or elephant, something like that. But what
kind of animal it is is not important. Don't get hung up on that. This
is the message. Christ is speaking all authority
and all power, even as he's nailed to the cross because he knows
his sacrifice is successful. Even before the Lord gives up
the ghost, even as he continues to suffer, he speaks in all power
because he knows his sacrifice is effectual. He's coming into
a kingdom. He won the war and he satisfied
his father. Verse 22, He says, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee. You see, now since Christ has
died, he's risen again from the dead. He's ascended back to the
Father. Now we have a gospel to preach. It's a gospel of forgiveness. It's a gospel of righteousness.
It's a gospel of peace with God. We have a gospel of eternal life
to preach. It's the gospel of Christ that
tells all about him. Christ has suffered, being forsaken
by the Father, so that his people will never be forsaken. To every child of God, let me
tell you this. There are days coming that are
gonna be dark, the nights gonna be dark, and you feel so alone. But you remember this, your Savior
never will forsake you, never, because He was forsaken as our
substitute. Christ the Savior suffered humiliation,
not just the humiliation of being naked before men, but the humiliation
of standing guilty before God, the humiliation of being made
sin, so that His people will never be humiliated of being
found guilty by God. He suffered naked so his people
are clothed with his righteousness. He suffered thirst so those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness will always be filled. It's Christ
that died so that his people have life. Christ died, but you
know he didn't stay dead. And he says here that he is the
one who's gonna come into the great congregation and preach
this gospel. He's the one that's going to
come and declare this gospel to the hearts of his people. Todd said, how many, 7, 8,000
messages? I tried to count up how many
I've heard. I estimated about 8,000. I heard a lot of gospel growing
up. From the time I understood language,
that's just, I didn't believe it. I hated it. I couldn't wait
to get out. I couldn't wait. Is he really going to preach
40 minutes? And one day, I thought, I love
that. Oh, this is my savior. This is
my king. Oh, I rejoice in this. What happened? I can tell you exactly what happened.
I quit hearing the voice of Henry Mahan, and almighty God spoke
to my heart. That's what happened. And that's what happens to every
one of God's people. Maybe it's the very first time you ever
hear it. Maybe like me, you heard it many, many, many times. But
the day that you'll believe is the day that God speaks to your
heart. Christ comes and he declares himself to your heart. And you
can't not believe. Oh, you love him, you believe
him, you rest on him, you depend upon him. Because he's the one
that declares the gospel. When he declares it, when he
speaks to our hearts, we're gonna believe. See, he says this from
the cross. He's speaking in absolute victory,
isn't he? And this is what he says to his
people. I try to imagine those disciples around the cross, watching
from a distance, those who, hearing about what's going on. They're
masters dying, they're master. They're full of fears. And his
people today were full of fears and doubts and worry, all because
of our sin. But listen to what the Savior
tells his people, verse 23. Ye that fear the Lord, praise
him. All ye that see of Jacob, glorify
him. And fear him, all ye that see
of Israel. The Savior tells his people,
don't fear, but rejoice in the Lord. Don't fear, but praise
the Lord. And why shouldn't we? Why shouldn't
we? He's forgiven our sin. He blotted
the sin of his people out by the blood of his sacrifice. And
listen, he did this for his elect. Christ didn't die for everybody.
He didn't die for every son of Adam. He died for his people.
That's the seed he's talking about here. The seed is his people.
And those people are saved. They're justified, they're righteous
because it's Christ that died for them. The message of the cross, the
gospel that God's given us to preach is a message of mercy
for sinners. We don't have any of this because
we deserve it. We have it because God's merciful. Verse 24, 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. God does not despise or reject
his people because of their sin. You know why? because Christ
our substitute was despised and rejected. The father hid his
face from his son so he doesn't hide his face from his poor,
weak children because their sin's been put away. And then verse
25, the Savior speaks in final triumph. My praise shall be of
thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear him. The Lord Jesus Christ honored
and magnified his father in every attribute, and he paid the vow. And what vow is he talking about
here? It's the vow that he made to his father in the covenant
of grace. He vowed to his father, I'll be surety for them. I'll
come and pay their debt. He's saying here on the cross,
I've done it. Their debt's paid. And because of that, verse 26,
The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart shall live forever. The meek don't eat the bread
of life and don't praise the Lord and don't have eternal life
because we earned it. No, we have all those things
because Christ the Savior paid the vow to His Father and the
Father gives them eternal life. He gives them everything that
Christ purchased for them with His blood. See, even from the
cross. There's no more talk of sorrow
and suffering now, is it? All that joy has turned to victory. It's all sorrows turned to joy
because he's accomplished the salvation of his people. And
this victory of Christ at Calvary is so complete. He saved a people
from all over the world. Verse 27. All the ends of the world shall
remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nation
shall worship before thee. All those people of all those
different nations are all gonna worship before thee. They're
all gonna remember. This do in remembrance of me. They're all gonna remember this
sacrifice. They're all gonna worship the Lord, because he
saved a people from all over the world. Every tongue, every
nation, every kindred. Verse 28, for the kingdom is
the Lord's, and he's the governor among the nations. The victory
of Christ at Calvary was so complete He saved all of his people. He
bought them. He owns them, lock, stock, and
barrel. But you know, not only that, he purchased everything
else, too. He rules over everything in this creation for one purpose,
to ensure the salvation of his people. He bought them, and he's
going to have them. He governs creation to ensure
that they're all brought to him. Now, that's the gospel. That
is what Christ has accomplished at the cross. But this is so sad. Everyone's
not gonna believe. Everyone will not trust in this
crucified Savior. Verse 29. All they that be fat
upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down
to the dust shall bow before him. And none can keep alive
his own soul. Now these here who are fat, they're
fat in their own righteousness. They think that what they do
can be good enough to please God. and they're gonna perish,
every one of them. You know why we can't keep our
soul alive? Brethren, we're already dead.
We're already dead. That's just what you told us.
We already died in Adam. We can't keep our soul alive.
The only hope of life we have is in Christ. He is our life. Not everybody won't believe him,
but thank God somebody will. And I can tell you who they are.
His seed. Every one of them are gonna believe.
Look here at verse 30. A seed shall serve him. This
shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall
come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born,
that he hath done this. God has a seed. That seed's a
people who are gonna be born again. And when they're born
again, just what you told us, they're gonna serve the Lord,
aren't they? And you know one way we serve the Lord is by telling
the next generation, by preaching to the next generation, our children. You spend time teaching the children
in your congregation. If you don't, who is? That's
our job, isn't it? To declare this to the next generation. I remember Jonathan Holbrook. He'd come in, his daddy would
bring him to the Bible classes and sometimes I'd substitute
teach. John, you weren't too happy. He wasn't too happy about
it. But there he was. Oh, the Lord's merciful. He's so merciful. But I'll tell
you who this next generation he's speaking of here. This next
generation is the next generation of God's elect. They must be
born again. They must be. How's that going
to happen? It's going to happen through
the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching, the message
of the cross. And God's going to see to it.
They're going to hear. They're going to believe. They're
going to be born again. They won't be able to help it.
They're born from the seed. They're God's seed. They're going
to be born again. And this is our message to them.
It is finished. That's the message. Well, don't
I have to? No. No. It's finished. Christ did it all. He did everything
that's necessary to accomplish the salvation of his people.
The work of redemption is done. Well, what am I supposed to do?
Not one thing. Just rest in Him. Just believe
Him. You call upon Him and you'll
worship Him. Oh, I pray that God will make
it so today. May the Lord be pleased. Bless His word. Thank you, Brother Frank. Let's
stand together.