When I was a boy and would go to church, we didn't
go very often. Whenever I got in trouble and
mother wanted to scare the hell out of me, she'd take me to church.
That's about it. But we'd go and I'd hear Bible stories. I heard about Noah in the ark
and Moses in the bush. I heard about David and Goliath
and Daniel in the lion's den. And I thought, man, that's better
than Aesop's fables. That's better than Jacqueline
and Tales. Wonderful stories. But nobody ever told me what
the stories meant. And I'll tell you why, because
they didn't know. They didn't know. It was just
a story about something miraculous. Our Lord Jesus was walking with
two of his disciples on the Emmaus Road after the resurrection.
And as he walked along, he opened to them the scriptures. You remember
the story? You can read it for yourself
in Luke 24. As he opened to them the scriptures, beginning at
Moses and in all the prophets, he testified to them things concerning
himself. And he opened their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures. And in Moses, and
in the Psalms, and in the prophets, he said, these things testify
of me. Moses, the law, the Psalms, all
the poetic books, and the prophets, that goes from Genesis 1.1 the
end of Malachi chapter 4 and the Lord Jesus says all that's
written in all the pages of all the Old Testament are talking
about me. They're talking about me. This
book you've got a copy in front of you I hope this book the Word
of God is not intended by God. to be a book about science, or
a book about history, or a book about prophecy. That's not what
it's about. That's not what it's about. It's
not intended by God to be a book of moral ethics. That's not what
it's about. This book is all about one thing,
one thing only. And that one thing is a person,
Jesus Christ, God's darling son. the accomplishment of redemption,
grace, and salvation by the sacrifice of God's dear son. Everything
recorded in the book is recorded to teach us something about our
Savior and his redemptive accomplishments. All Old Testament history, all
the events recorded, all the miracles, all the laws, all the
ceremonies, all the history of Israel, all of their captivities,
all of their deliverances, everything written and recorded in the book
of inspiration was brought to pass deliberately by the hand
of God to use as an illustration of his great grace and salvation
by Christ Jesus the Lord. This is a treasure chest. It's
full of riches. It's a treasure chest full of
things more valuable than buckets of gold. But it's a treasure
chest that sealed and closed. Until you have the key that opens
it. You read this book and it's full of gins and snares written
deliberately by God to trip up reprobate men who will not believe. It's written deliberately by
God to confuse folks who will not bow to it. It's full of gins
and stairs until you have the key that opens the treasure box. And the key is Jesus Christ and
him crucified. Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now you can talk about the old
rugged cross and sing about the cross and wear crosses and make
pretty crosses all you want to and folks. whoopee and carry
on with it. The message of this book is about
what Christ accomplished on the cross. The message of this book is about
what Christ accomplished on the cross. Who did it, why he did
it, and for whom he did it. It's all about that. It's all
about that. And if ever you find out who
he is, what he did and why he did it. You'll quit singing about
your experiences and your emotions and your stuff and you'll bow
to God and sing his praise and worship him and him only. When
the Lord God spoke in the beginning and said, let there be light
and God created the world. The whole story of creation.
It is a real story. God really did create the heavens
and the earth out of nothing. But the reason he created things
as he created them was to show us a picture of how God saves
sinners, giving light to sinners in darkness by the power of his
spirit. When God created Adam and Eve
in the garden and he sent Adam in the garden, he made a covenant
with Adam. He made Adam Eve's head. He made
Eve subject to Adam because Adam was made in the image and likeness
of God himself, who was to come in human flesh. God, man, our
mediator, Christ, the last Adam, and everything that transpired
in Adam was given by God to be a type, a similitude, a picture
of what Christ, the last Adam, would accomplish when he came
in this world. We're told that Romans chapter five. No one the
ark. Oh, what a story that is. That's
a picture of redemption and salvation by Jesus Christ. He endured all
the wrath of God for his people. And I endured
all the wrath of God in him. I have already suffered all the
fury of divine justice in the person of my substitute, so that
God says to Jacob, fury is not in you. Justice is fully satisfied,
just as Noah sailed through the sea of divine judgment, but it
never touched him because he was in the ark. When God sent
David out to meet Goliath, what a picture of our Lord Jesus,
the son of David, conquering death, hell in the grave. When
God gave the law at Sinai, he gave the law for just one reason,
for just one reason. The law was not given to teach
you how to live right and pay your bills. Now, you ought to
do that by all means. Don't misunderstand me. You ought
to live right and pay your bills. You ought to be honest. You ought
to do right with God and with man. But the law wasn't given
for that purpose. The law was given to show us
our sin, to shut us up to Christ, to show us that we could not
live right and could not do right. The purpose of the law is to
show sinners that they're sinners. To show sinners that they need
a substitute. To show sinners they can't possibly
come to God without Christ. The only way God saves sinners
is by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. When God
gave the law in Exodus chapter 20 where brother Todd read just
a little bit ago. He came down to Sinai and commanded
that no man except Moses should come up to the mount. He commanded
when he gave the law that no man should even put his hand
on the border of the mountain. If any man touches it, kill him.
That's what he said. That's what he said. Nobody comes
here. Nobody. This is the revelation
of my holiness in this place where darkness is. God comes
to give light and no man's to touch it. If it does, kill it,
kill it. That's how strict it is. When
the Lord came down upon Sinai's fiery mountain, thunders and
lightnings and clouds and thick darkness covered the mountain.
And then a voice of a trumpet blast was heard so loud, so shrill
that all the camp of Israel trembled when they heard God upon the
mount. They feared and quaked before the mountain. That's exactly
what will happen. with anyone who ever hears what
God says in the law. Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law? You
have these commandments posted here. Now, let me tell you how
God explains the meaning of those 10 commandments. I guarantee
you, you'll take them off the wall. If you ever find out what
God says those 10 commandments are, we don't worship a table
of law. No, sir. We worship God who fulfilled
it in the person of his son. Let me tell you what God says
those commandments mean. Be ye holy, for I am holy. That's what God said. He didn't
say be as holy as you can, Paul, he said be holy. In fact, he
translates it this way. Walk before me and be thou perfect. That's what God says. That's
what law requires. Anybody qualify? Walk before
me and be thou perfect. He says in his law, it must be
perfect to be accepted. Anything you bring to God, anything
you bring to God has got to be perfect to be accepted. That
includes your songs, Your prayers, your desires, your preaching,
your witnessing, your sacrifices, your gifts, bring it to God.
It'll either be perfect or God won't have it. He won't have
anything less than perfection. The law says the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. In other words, sinner, you need
somebody who can make you perfect and make all that you are perfect.
and all that you represent and do perfect before God Almighty. You need somebody who can take
your wrecked, ruined life and not just clean it up, but make
you perfect before God. A representative, a substitute. Jesus Christ is that man. He
is that God. The law of God reveals holiness
and justice. Any mere sinful man who dares
touch it will die by it. He said, I live by the law. If
you do, you're going to hell with it. I promise you. I promise
you. God never gave the law to be
a code of conduct, a means of salvation, or a ladder of holiness,
a measure of sanctification. God's law was given at Sinai
to identify and condemn sin, to pronounce sinners guilty.
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty
before God. That's what Paul tells us in
Romans chapter three. The law was given to show us
our desperate need of Christ to shut us up to the son of God
alone for salvation and grace. No sooner did God give his law
here in Exodus chapter 20. Then the children of Israel cried
out for an intercessor, a mediator, someone to stand between them
and God. They said, Moses, don't let God
speak to us. You go up and speak to God for
us, and then you come down here and speak to us for God. And
as such, Moses was himself a type and a representative of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the only mediator there is between God and man,
the only man who can deal with God and deal with men. The only
man who can speak to God and speak to men, speak to men for
God and speak to God for men is Christ Jesus, the God-man
mediator. While the people stood afar off,
we're told in verse 21, Moses drew near unto the thick darkness
where God was and God began to speak to Moses in terms of hope. Did you follow what Todd read
when he read this 20th chapter? God gave the law at Sinai and
the law said you're going to die. That's what the law said.
The law said you're doomed. You're damned. You're lost. You've
got no hope. If everything's up to you, you're
going to hell. If something depends on you,
you're going to hell. There's no hope for you in yourself. No hope for you by anything any
man can do. And then he began to speak in
terms of hope. He said, he said. I'm going to have you build an
altar. An altar is a place of worship. An altar is a place of sacrifice.
An altar is a place of atonement, a place of hope. The Lord God,
immediately after giving the law, opens this door of hope
to Moses. And he says, you go down there
and tell those people, that crowd of terrified sinners, that there
is one way they can come to me. By this altar. By this altar. Just by this altar. Now that
altar represented the true altar. We don't have altars in our churches.
If you call that an altar, I suggest that you do something, tear it
out, burn it, do something. We don't have religious things
or religious relics. That's what papists have. That's
what idolaters have. Christ is our altar. He's in
glory. And if you come to God, you're
going to have to get to that altar. It won't do you any good to come
to an altar in front of a Baptist church or in front of a Catholic
church. It won't do you any good at all. You've got to come to God
by the altar he has made and he's given. There's this hope
because there's an altar, this altar where you can Come to God.
If you would, if I would come to the holy Lord God, if we would
find acceptance with him, the only way we can is by Christ,
the altar of God's provided. We would come to God and be accepted
of him. We must worship him alone as
God. Have no idols. Have no idols. Now, idolatry
doesn't just mean that you make a totem pole God and worship
that. That's not all. That's not it. Idolatry is making
God to be what he is not. Idolatry is pretending that God
is something other than what he is. It's just as idolatrous
to worship a false god under the name of Jehovah as it is
to worship a false god and call it Allah. Just as idolatrous
to worship a false god under the name of Jesus as it is to
worship Mary. just as idolatrous. To worship
God under a representation of something that's not God is idolatry. I'm telling you as plainly as
I can tell you, I've been trying to tell you for five nights now,
the God of this religious age is no God at all. A helpless, frustrated, defeated
God who wants to do what he can't do, who tries to do what he fails
to do, who wills what he doesn't have is no God, but just an idol. have no gods before me. We must
worship God upon the altar he's made with the sacrifice he requires
in the place where he records his name. And that altar, that
sacrifice, that place is Christ the Lord. We must come to the
Holy Lord God, trusting Christ alone, contributing nothing. Look at Exodus 20 verse 25. Don't
you see this? We must not attempt to come to God upon the basis
of anything we have done or might do. Look at verse 25. If thou
wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn
stone. For if thou lift up thy tool
upon it, thou hast polluted it. We like to touch things up, don't
we? We'd like to touch things up. We'd like to just add a little
something. Just a little something. Just
a little something. You see, somebody's done something,
and you just, that ought to be right there. You just got to
do something. You just got to do something.
Because we got to have our hand in it. And more so with regard
to salvation and grace than with regard to anything else. We got
to do something. If you lift up your tool on it,
you're going to hell. You add anything to the finished
work of Christ, you're going to hell. I don't care whether
it's a prayer, a decision, your free will, your tithes are giving
your life to be a missionary in New Guinea. It doesn't matter.
You do anything, add anything, or hope before God, you're going
to hell. was watching the Ark of God. You remember David brought
the Ark of God up out of the house of Obed-Edom and he's going
up to Jerusalem to build a place for God. He's going there, Jordan,
to build a house of worship for God. What could be better than
that? What could be better than that? He's going to build a house
for God. He's going to build a place for
God's name to be honored, a place where God later set the temple.
Wow. What a work. What a work. And
as they're going along, there's a fellow named us who saw That
arc's cut. It just did that. Just a little
slip. Just a little slip. You remember
what it did? He reached out to steady the arc. He just reached
out. He was just trying to keep God's
arc from falling in the mud hole. That's all he was doing. God needs my help. He just put
his hand on the arc. You remember what God did to
him? He killed it just like that. God still kills sinners for touching
his arc. He still sends folks to hell for putting their hand
to his ark. You'll come to me on my altar and don't lift your
tool up on it. We must not attempt to come to
God by something we do, and we must not attempt to come to God
by degrees. Look at verse 26. People often talk about steps
to salvation and steps to grace. Several years ago, I was preaching
out in California. The fellow's a friend of mine now. God saved
him. Pastor told me, I'm going to preach this morning and said,
I'd like for you to critique the message when I've done it.
And I thought, oh, my soul, I wish you hadn't said that. But I was
scheduled to preach immediately after it. And he got up and preached
on God's ladder of salvation. And everything he said, Todd
was wrong. Everything he said, his brother, Gene Harmon, he
won't mind me telling you this. Everything he said was wrong. The pastor
first Baptist church in the country. I turned around, said to Gene,
it wasn't Gene Harmon, it was Bob Harmon. I said to Gene Harmon,
I said I'll give you $100 if you'll preach instead of me.
I just, oh, I didn't want to preach because I knew what I
had to do. I had to get up behind him and tear every rung of the
ladder out. Just tear every rung out. And
God saved him, I'm thankful he did. But no, you don't come to
God by degrees. You don't come to God by steps.
You come all at once. All at once. Not by steps you
make. Look what it says here in verse
26. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar. Here's the reason that thy nakedness
be not discovered thereof. What? Now, you've all heard stories
about it. God required if you're going
to build me an altar stone, it can't be a human stone and you
make a platform to go up, kind of like this handicapped, rather
than steps. Let somebody get underneath and
look up skirt and see you naked. No, that's not what he's talking
about. That's not what he's talking about. What perversity came over
that stuff? I don't know. No, that's not
what he's talking about. He's talking about something far worse. You
remember what Noah's son, Ham, exposed concerning his father? His nakedness. And Sham and Japheth
refused to look upon their father's nakedness, and they went backwards
and covered it. You see, the reprobate always exposed sin. The believing always covers sin. That's what our Redeemer does.
He covers it and takes it away. If you go up by assent to God,
all you're doing with your works of righteousness is showing your
nakedness. You're just showing your shame
and your sin. Now, I want us to look at Exodus
21, verses 1 through 6. In this passage, Brother Todd
read to us earlier, the Lord God begins to give us his judgments,
the civil statutes of Israel. I find it interesting, more than
interesting, very instructive, that the first civil statute
he gives is this law with regard to the bond slave, a law by which
he typifies and portrays redemption and grace in Christ. Now, get
the picture. God gave the law at Sinai, the
Ten Commandments, by which God says you're damned. That's what
those Ten Commandments say. You're going to hell. That's
all they say. They don't say anything else. You're going to
hell. You can't measure up. You can't meet what God requires.
You're going to hell. That's what God said. And then
he turned around and said, Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
I've got better news than that. I've intervened. There's an altar
by which you can come to me. And then he tells us how this
altar has been erected by the doing and dying of one man who
is Jehovah's Servant. Our subject tonight is Christ
the Servant. Christ the Servant. God, there's one man, only one,
who ever served God. Really. Is that right? That's exactly right. The best
you and I can do, and I speak to him. I've known him a long
time. I met him when he was a senior in high school. And he's my daughter's
pastor. I love him. I'm thankful for
him. The best you do, you're still serving Todd. Is that accurate? The best you do, you're still
serving Brother Richard. The best you do, you're still
serving Brother Lawson. That's just fact. That's just
fact. Our greatest sacrifice and our
greatest service involve a horrible measure of self, and that's all
sin. Only one man ever served God,
loving God with all his heart, soul, mind, and being, and his
neighbor as himself. And that man is Christ our mediator,
the God-man, our savior, represented here in this law of the bondservant.
Let's read what God says. Now these are the judgments which
thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant
six years, shall he serve six years. Everything has a reason. I'd underscore that if I was
you. In the seventh year, seventh year, he shall go out free for
nothing. Verse 3. If he came in by himself,
he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master had given him a
wife, and she had borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her
children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. He's going to go out alone. Verse
5. And if the servant shall plainly
say, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife,
And my children, I will not go out free. I believe I'd underscore
that. I love my master, my wife, my
children. I will not go out free. Then
his master shall bring him to the judges and he shall also
bring him to the door or under the doorpost and his master shall
bore his ear through with an all and he shall serve him forever. The servant spoken of in this
passage of scripture is our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. The
Lord Jesus, God's darling son, became Jehovah's servant in covenant
grace before the world began. In Psalm 40, he said, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O my God. When he struck hands with the
Father in the covenant, he said, I'll go redeem your people. When
he came into his mother's womb, that holy seed created in his
mother's womb by the Holy Ghost working in his mother's virgin
womb, he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. And when
he broke forth from his mother's womb as the firstborn who opens
the womb, he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. Now listen to how the Holy Spirit
concludes that. By the witch will we are sanctified
by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. I came God to make
your people all unholy, all sinful, all lost, all ruined, all damned. I came to make your people holy. And now by his obedience to the
father's will as Jehovah's servant, we who are his stand before God. holy, sanctified, perfected forever
by his obedience unto death as our substitute. Understand this. As Jehovah's servant, the Lord
Jesus is the surety of the new covenant. Surety of the new covenant. Do you know what surety is? We
we don't use that kind of language much anymore. I have a fellow
I used to rent from Rented from him for nine years in Danville
on the furniture store. George Greider, and he told me a story
one day, I was in there. He carried a lot of folks on
credit, like most fellows did in his day. And a fellow came
in one day, he said, George, my son and his wife, they're
building a new house, and they want a whole house full of new
furniture. And I think that they're good
for it. And I wonder if you'd let him
have it and pay for it on credit. George said, well, sure I will.
He's your son. And they furnished a 10,000 square foot house with
new furniture on a signature. And they'd been paid on it about
three months later. Father came in again. He said, George, how's
my boy doing? He said, well, he's doing fine. He said, made
everything right on time. He said, if you will, he said,
transfer all of his debt over to my account. I will take care
of that. George said, well, there's a lot here. He said, transfer
the whole thing, my account. I will take care of it. OK. So
he transferred it over. Father signed the papers. And
George said, you know where he went after that? He said left
him, went to the courthouse and filed bankruptcy. And that meant I couldn't even
write to his son and say, won't you pretty please pay the debt?
Because the whole responsibility belongs to the charity. Understand
that Christ became the surety of God's elect before the world
began. Our surety. He assumed total
responsibility for his people so that God, the triune Jehovah
ceased from eternity to look to Don Fortner for anything. He looks only to my surety for
righteousness and satisfaction, only to my surety for my eternal
salvation. and yours too if you're his.
Christ is the surety. Christ is surety. He says other
sheep I have, them also I must bring and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. He said these sheep I must bring
them. They shall hear my voice. They're gonna follow me. They're
my sheep already. I stood as their shepherd before
the world began. He's the shepherd responsible
for the sheep. Now let's see what this passage
teaches us about our Lord being Jehovah's servant. First, The
Lord Jesus Christ chose to become Jehovah's servant. Whenever you
read in the scriptures about the Lord Jesus, God, the son
being subservient to the father. You'll find a few fellows have
Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses come by, knock on your door.
That's one of the things they'll jump on. He's got to be less
than God. No. It is a matter of voluntary
subjection on the part of God, the son, who is in every way
equal with God. When I say Christ, when the book
teaches that Christ is equal to God, that means that Jesus,
the man is God. He is God in him, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, but for the saving of his people.
For the glorifying of God, the Lord Jesus voluntarily subjected
himself to all the demands of God's holiness, justice, and
truth to save our souls. Let me sit on the illustrator
for you. Y'all saw my wife here Tuesday night. Little old bitty
thing. And I'm not quite as strong as
I was a few years ago, but I can still whip her. Don't tell her
I said so. I can still whip her. I can still
beat her in arm wrestling. I can still pick her up and throw
her across the room. I can still do that. If I took
it, if I do a notion to her, don't tell anybody I do it. I
don't. But if I do a notion to her, I could. But every now and
then, every now and then, I give her a honeydew day. You know
what that means? That means all right, now honey,
and some of them coming up quick because springtime's here. Tomorrow
or the second Tuesday of next week, I promise you, that day's
yours and I'll do whatever you want me to do and by the time
that day rolls around she's got a list that'll take me from daylight
to well past midnight and it's do this do that do this do that
and I'm going to do that and and I do it like she says do
it no point doing it don't do like she says do it and I do
her bidding her command because I'm willing to because I'm willing
to That's all. Because I'm willing to. She can't make me do anything. Over the years, a few times,
she's tried. She can't make me do anything.
It ain't going to happen. Not in my house. It ain't going
to happen. It just ain't going to happen. No, sir. But when
I wanted to, she can. When I wanted to, I'll do whatever
she says. I'll do whatever she says. That's
what I'm talking about. The Lord Jesus Christ is God,
our Savior. And God, our Savior, willingly
took on himself the form of a servant and humbled himself. You know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? How that though he was rich,
yet for our sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be made rich? He who is rich in all the fullness
of his Godhead became so poor that he became a man to obey
God until he was made sin for us and gave up his life under
the wrath of God as our substitute. He's a voluntary servant. He
voluntarily came here to do the bidding of his father for the
glory of God and the saving of his people. Secondly, he did
it. He served. From the moment of
his birth until his final breath in this world, the Son of God,
our Savior, served his father. He was Jehovah's righteous servant
and Jehovah's faithful servant. He said to his disciples, I am
among you as he that serveth. He that serveth. He came here
to do his father's will, and that's all he did. the full age
of a man, for six years the servant had to serve. For six years. But Christ was 33 and a half
years old when he died. He walked on this earth in his
public ministry just three and a half years. The picture is
a type. The servant must serve for six
years. Six years is the number of man. It's the number of man. People
talk about the number of the beast. 666 Antichrist. How many of you have
heard scary tales about 666? 666. Well, I as a right there
with Brother Maurice Montgomery, right down from where he lives,
three or four doors down. There's a house that was for
sale for years. They couldn't sell it. The address
was 666 Choctaw Drive. Oh, we can't move in there. That's Antichrist. Why are you
scared of that? Six, six, six. That's the number
of man. Frustration, failure, and defeat. That's all. That's all. The servant
shall serve for six years, representing the whole life of man. And the
Lord God is about to give laws next concerning restitution.
Restitution of all things. And the Lord Jesus came here
as Jehovah's righteous servant to live the full age of a man. He lived for 33 years on this
earth, the full age of manhood in perfect obedience to God to
make restitution for all that Adam did in the garden. And we
did in him. And we've done since our fall
in him. He came here to make up for, to make reconciliation,
to make atonement, to make an end to sin, to bring in everlasting
righteousness. And he did it by his obedience
to the Lord God as our substitute and savior. He fulfilled the
law perfectly. He put away the sins of his people.
Our Lord Jesus did it all. God demands that you and I love
him perfectly. And love our neighbor perfectly.
Franklin Ayer, that's what God demands of you. And you can't
do it. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You say, I'm going to try. You
try and you go to hell. You try and you'll go to hell.
That's exactly right. Put your hand to it, God will
kill you. God demands that you suffer all his wrath that you
deserve for your sins. God demands it and you're going
to suffer it. You're going to suffer it. I'm going to suffer
it either personally in hell or in a substitute on the cross.
One of the two. Will you hear me now? You hear
me? God help you to hear me. when the Son of God walked on
this earth, when he walked on this earth for 33 years, living
and breathing holiness, living and breathing righteousness,
living and breathing complete submission to God, living and
breathing love to God and love to his neighbor. I walked on
this earth, the full age of a man living and breathing holiness,
love to God, Love to my neighbor, righteousness, doing perfectly
the will of God in my substitute. In my substitute, when he went
yonder to Calvary. And suffered the fury of God's
infinite justice. Being made sin for me. I suffered
all the hell God can pour old man in my substitute, and I died
when he died. And now God requires no more. God requires no more. Perfection
is what I have in him. Brother Todd Niber said this
to me on the phone the other day. If he wasn't sitting here, I'd
claim it for my own, but he's sitting here, so I can't lie about it. He said
to his congregation, he said, if you want to read my biography,
is that what you said? If you want to read my biography,
read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That's it. That's it! If you want to know
who Don Fortner is before God, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. So that now the Holy God who
is of purer eyes than the look upon iniquity says to Richard
Christian, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? And for that reason, it takes you to glory. This is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. In whom? Why didn't
he say with whom? Why didn't he say with whom?
I don't have a son, I've got a grandson, so I'll brag on him.
And Todd will tell you, these other fathers in the room will
tell you, I'm real pleased that boy. He pleases me well. And if I look at it, this is
my grandson. This is Will Hacker. He's my
grandson. Boy, I sure am pleased in him.
You'd think, well, he meant to say with him. And you'd be right. If I meant to say in him, I've
got something messed up. No. Well, pleased with everything
he does. Well, pleased with his behavior.
well-pleased with his academics, well-pleased the way he behaves
himself on the ball field, well-pleased the way he behaves when I take
him out with some other fellas, well-pleased with him. But our God said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well-pleased. Chris, he's talking
about you and me in him. God is well-pleased with us,
the totality of our lives in him. So we stand and sing to
God be the glory. He accepts it as if we really
did sing it. We bring God our lives and he
accepts our lives as he accepts the obedience of his own son.
We bring God our service. He accepts our service as the
service of his own son. We bring God our two mites and
he accepts it like he accepted his son laying down his life
for us. We're accepted in the beloved
and that never varies. That never varies. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son, I am as near as he. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son, I am as dear as he. Accepted in the beloved. Now, we we're just determined. To get our fingers on the thing.
It ought to be right there. We're just determined to. I see
you said in order to move back, get our fingers on where we got
to do something, we got to do something. And so we get feeling
bad. Me too. Your heart's cold. Mind's full of unbelief, your
soul's defiled. You read the Bible and it's like
reading a newspaper and we're less interested. Do I speak the truth? I can read
warned ads and stay up all night reading them. Warned ads about
things I had no interest in and fall asleep reading this book
and wide awake in the morning. Because we're so sinful, so vile, so
corrupt. And so we'll Well, I need to
start reading more. I need to start going to church
more. I need to start praying more
and start giving more. Well, you probably ought to do all
those things, but not to get close to God. No, no, not to
have God's acceptance. Oh, no. We're accepted in the
blood. When was David more accepted
of God? When he was leaping and dancing
before the ark, and he brought that ark up out of the house
of Obed-Edom, dancing because God chose me, dancing because
God redeemed me. Or when he was in Bathsheba's
arms and arranged the murder of her husband. When was he more
accepted of God? When? Well, pastor, if he's accepted
in Christ, It didn't change. You got it. If you're accepted in Christ,
if you're accepted in Christ, your acceptance is an immutable,
perfect acceptance that can never be violated or marred in any
way. Christ is our salvation. You
understand that? Christ is our Savior. He's Jehovah's Servant.
Now, look at this third thing. According to the law, had he
chosen to do so, our Savior, Jehovah's Servant, could have
gone out free. Didn't he say to his apostles, I could right now call to my
Father and he'd send ten, twelve legions of angels to rescue me?
He could have gone out free. He could have gone out anytime.
But blessed be God. He would not go out by himself.
He would not. So look at this fourth thing. Look at verse five in our text.
If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife
and my children, I will not go out free. Master says, all right,
come over here. You stand here at the doorpost
and I want to take an all before all these witnesses. I'm going to bore a hole in your
ear. That's going to be the standing testimony. You're my slave forever. Read Isaiah chapter 50. Verse
5, the Lord God hath opened mine ear, neither turn thy way back. The Lord Jesus stands as Jehovah's
voluntary servant for us forever, because I love my father, I love
my master, and I love my wife, and I love my children. I love
my people and I love God. I will not go out free. Oh. The love of God, our savior. How can it be illustrated? Jacob
loved Rachel. And served for Rachel for seven
years. And they did things different
back in those days when he got married and woke up next day,
that homely ugly sister, Leah, was laying beside him. And he took it up with Laban.
And Laban said, well, it's not right to give the younger sister
first. And Jacob said, all right, I'll
serve seven more years for Rachel. And he says, it seemed as but
a few days. So our savior loved his bride
and endured all for us. the days of his life upon the
earth. There's another picture. Adam
saw Eve when she sinned against God. And rather than lose Eve, Adam willingly, with his eyes
wide open, knowing exactly what he was doing, plunged himself
into death and sin under the curse of God because of his love
for Eve. So the last Adam, willingly,
deliberately, with his eyes wide open, came into this world and
plunged himself into sin, being made sin for us, and plunged
himself under the curse of God, being made a curse for us, and
plunged himself into death. that he might redeem us sooner
than lose us. Oh, what wondrous love this is. One more thing. I'll be done.
Look at the last two words of our text. Actually, modern English should
just be what? Forever. Forever. He shall be servant forever. Our Lord's servitude on the earth
is done, but he speaks in the parable of himself, girding himself
and serving us, leading us by fountains of living water forever. Forever. Feeding us from the
leaves of the tree of life forever. Teaching us forever. walking with us forever, blessing
us forever. When at last he has presented
us faultless for the presence of his father's throne. With
exceeding joy. Wonder whose joy? Reckon that's
his joy or mine? His joy or yours? Yep, that's
what it is. With joy, with joy, God the Son
soon will present us holy and unblameable, spotless, without
wrinkle, without fault, before the presence of his glory. Oh,
what joy, and what joy for him, with joy, Lo, I the children
whom thou hast given me. And then, when he's delivered
up the kingdom unto the Father, God shall be all and all, and
then cometh the end. But forever he goes on to serve
every sinner who trusts him with everlasting life and everlasting
glory. Amen. Our God, O God, our Savior,
thank you. Thank you, thank you for your
perfect obedience, for free grace, for blood redemption, for perfect
righteousness in your darling son. Will you be pleased now? To bless
this pastor, this assembly. In the days before them, God
armed them, be a wall about them, protect them and use them. I
ask your blessings upon these other brethren. as we labor together
in the cause of our Redeemer. God, make us faithful. Oh, God, how faithful you have
been. How faithful you have been. Make
us faithful to you for Christ's sake. Amen.