In the first chapter of Matthew,
from verse 18, we read the following. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privily. While he fought on these things,
behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream,
saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary
thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being
interpreted, is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from
sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took
unto him his wife. and knew her not till she had
brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus. She shall bring forth her son
and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins. What stands between us and a
holy God? What stands between us? What
stood between the Jews and their salvation? What kept them in
bondage at this time of which we have read? When Christ was
born, when Mary was with child, the
Jews, Judea, was under the captivity of Rome. A people made the slaves
of another nation. They knew what captivity was. They knew what bondage was. They knew what slavery was. But
what really kept them in bondage? Was it Rome? No, it was their
sins. Their sins kept them in bondage. Their sins had separated them
from God. Their sins. Your sins keep you
in bondage. Your sins keep you from God. Your sins will prevent you from
entering into God's presence when you die. and will send you
as a consequence of God's strict justice into everlasting darkness
if you have no answer for them. Your sins are a burden from which
you cannot escape. They're like chains around your
hands that pull you down and they will pull you down into
hell. when the few years of your life
come to a close. Don't kid yourself that you are
without sin. Don't fool yourself that those
things you have done, those things you do and those things that
you will do to the end of your days are without consequence. We are full of sin, born in sin,
conceived in iniquity and every day, every thought, every action
is tainted by sin. We build up a mountain of sin
throughout our lives which separate us from God and which His holy
righteousness, His justice demands an answer. The world hates the
idea of sin. It hates the idea that the wrongs
that men and women commit should be called sins. It hates the
idea that there should be a final judgment against sins. And it
preaches the idea that these things are a myth. Something
which bound the conscience of former generations needlessly. And it tries to kid this generation,
this age, you and I, into thinking lightly of our sins. Lightly
of our sin. Into thinking that there is no
accounting for sin. That there is no judgement, no
God to answer to. That you can live as you like.
You can feed your own pleasure. You can fulfill your own ambitions. You can, as they say, live your
life to the full with impunity. Well they're liars, they're liars
to themselves and they're liars to your soul and whatever they
think and they do and whatever the consequences upon them, you
are a fool to follow them because their advice will lead you into
judgment and lead you into hell. There is a God, there is a God
whom we have offended There is a God whom you have offended
and your sins have set you at a great distance and you will
not enter into heaven. You will not be spared the wrath
to come. You will not be delivered from
judgment unless there is found an answer for your sins. For your sins. For all those
things you should have done that you haven't done. For all those
things you shouldn't have done that you have done. For all those
thoughts you had of things you might do that you didn't do but
you thought it. For all those thoughts of annoyance
and hatred against others. How you could murder that one. How you would bring that person
to nothing if he stands in your way. How angry you are against
this one. All those faults of corruption
and evil which you've kept hidden away but which the all-seeing
eye of God looks in and sees and knows and records. All those
hidden deeds will be brought into your ears on that day when
you stand before a holy God if you have no answer for them.
Oh you can go through this world putting on a show. You can veneer
your life with all the religion you can find. You can read the
Bible, you can attend every service, you can keep from all the moral
ills of this day and age. You can paint yourself as white
as you can be but inside is that black filth that you cannot hide. You hide it from men but God
knows and you know And you know that that sin within, and those
sins which you have committed within, keep you from God. That was the bondage which Mary,
Joseph, and their countrymen, and generations before them,
and generations since, found themselves in. Oh the weight
of our sins. By nature we're oblivious. By
nature we're careless. By nature we refuse to accept
that they're there. But when God begins to stir on
the waters of your soul, when the Spirit of God like a wind
begins to blow over the waters of your soul, And when there
begins to be a bit of a rumble of thunder from on high within,
and you become aware of what you are, and aware of what you've
done, and aware of how you stand before Almighty God, when God
begins to bring a knowledge of his gospel, and a knowledge of
his law and a knowledge of his righteousness and his holiness
to bear upon you and you begin to see yourself in the light
of such a standard and you begin to look in and see how dark and
corrupt you are and how white and light and perfect and righteous
he is and the great gulf that stands between you. Oh, how you
begin to feel the weight and the burden of your sins. They begin to weigh down heavy
upon your soul. They begin to weigh like they
never weighed. Your arms become heavy. Your
legs become like lead. You feel like you're being pulled
down into the ground. Your nights become restless. You wake in the morning and you
realize that you've been spared a day but what will this day
bring? You look back and are aware of
all that you have done in prior days. You look up to heaven and
you're aware that this day could be your last day and what if
it was? What if you walked under a bus?
What if you contracted some fatal disease? What if you fell down
dead with a heart attack? What if this was your last day?
What are you going to do about those sins? Oh, the weight and the burden
they become. You've begun to turn from them. You've begun to try to cleanse
your life. You've begun to try to turn unto
God. You've stopped doing some of
the things you formerly loved to do. You've started to read
his word. You've started to try to pray. But oh how far off he seems to
be. And how blind you are and how
without understanding you are. You read the scriptures and you
cannot comprehend. And all you see are your sins,
like a mountain before you, keeping you from God. Oh, you cry out with that man
of old, my sins are ever before me. My sins are ever before me. My iniquities, my transgressions,
my sins have mounted up above me. You feel like you're a man
in deep waters. Sinking, sinking, this ocean
of sins all around you. All that you've done, they've
gone up over your head like deep waters. And all that you try
to do, to change, doesn't alter a thing. Every day you sin more. Every day you strive to do good
and you sin. The good that you would, you
cannot do, and the evil that you would not, that you do. Oh,
who shall deliver me from this body of death, you cry out with
Paul. Oh, the desperation in such a
state. The desperation, the sins are
over your head. They're ever before you. And
even if you were to cease from sinning, which you cannot do.
What of your past sins? You can't rewind the clock, you
can't go back in time, you can't undo them, they're there, they're
on record, you know that they've been done, you cannot block them
out. And as for your future sins,
every day you strive and you strive harder and harder to try
to sin less and rather than sinning less, you're sinning more. Rather
than getting closer to God, you're getting further away from God.
This mountain of debt has become untenable. We live in days in our country.
and in the United States where there's much talk of the national
debt and how it's increased vastly and the countries just struggle
to make enough money to pay off the interest on the debt without
ever making any dent in reducing the debt. The signs are calamitous. The outlook is bleak. Well it's
just the same for a sinner under conviction of sin. Rather than
reducing your debt, you're struggling to keep up with the interest.
The debt just goes higher and higher. You're never reducing
it, you're never slowing down the climb. You're slipping down
a slope. And it sits as a mountain, as
a burden on your back. Oh the burden! These things bring
those under a burden like this, who feel the burden, who've been
brought to know the burden, those whom the Spirit of God works
in, maybe you today, they bring you to a point of desperation,
who shall deliver me? Oh, what a debt. Have you cried out? Have you seen your need? Well,
the Jews of old knew their need. Some didn't, some did. There
were many at the coming of Christ who thought they were fine. The
scribes, the Pharisees kept that law outwardly. They thought that
they pleased God. And when he sent his son unto
them, they rejected him and put him to death. They didn't need
him. They saw, they thought, when
in reality they were blind. But there were ones and twos
in their midst, who knew their need, who knew their sins, who
knew their debt, and who looked for a redeemer, who looked for
one to come to set them free, who looked for one to come to
release them from that captivity. not the captivity of Rome but
the bondage, the burden of their sins. They needed a saviour,
they needed their sins forgiven, they needed deliverance and you
need one to come to deliver you from your sins, from your sins. And here In Matthew and chapter
1, after hundreds of years of waiting, after hundreds of years
since the last voice of the prophets rang out in this dark and evil
world, since Malachi closed his prophecy and spake of the coming
of the Son of Righteousness, there had been silence. Generation
was born, generation died. And people looked and they read
the scriptures and they felt their sins and they looked for
one to come and there was silence. Maybe you're like that. You look,
the sins weigh heavy upon your soul and you look up and you
pray and you long and you look and there's silence. The heavens
are as it were like brass. There's no light shining through.
There's no voice crying out. There's no answer to your prayers. Your sins are mounting up. The
state is getting desperate and there's no answer. There's silence. And yet you look because you
can do none else. There's no help in you. You've
no strength. You've no ability to undo what
you have done. There's no help in other men.
There's no help in the religion that you go to. There's no help
in the churches. There's no help in this world.
You turn to this one, you turn to that one, you turn to this
religion, you turn to that religion. They all put you about doing
but nothing undoes your sin. They all tell you how to live
right but nothing undoes what you've done. They have no answer. How many have turned to this
religion and that? How many have tried Islam, Hinduism,
Buddhism and found they're just the same? Full of sin and they
reach their deathbed and their soul cries out in horror. How
many have turned from God altogether and turned to science falsely
so called and turned to the answers of the wisdom of the age? and
denied the very existence of God and the very presence of
their own sins within and on their deathbed cried out in horror
as God opens their eyes and leads them forth to the judgment seat.
Don't let it be you. but maybe you know and you wait
and you know there's no help in any of these things no help
in man no help in the wisdom of this world and you look and
you wait and you look unto God and you cry for help and you
cry for salvation to come and you wait for it to come and in
the end It comes. Because these, this generation
of Jews, Mary and Joseph, one day saw the coming of God. Mary was with child of the Holy
Ghost. Joseph fearful that she should
be made an example for they were not yet married. sought to do
something about it, fearful of what men would say, fearful of
the consequences. And God, through an angel, met
with him and said, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. She shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name her son's name, your son Joseph,
your wife's son, Mary's son, thou shalt call his name Joshua,
Jesus, Saviour, for he shall save his people from their sins. Oh this people had waited for
so long, so much silence, so much awareness of their need,
so long await and then there's this one come into the world
then there's this promise of a son to be born then God speaks
from on high Mary shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Oh
what a name! Jesus. Joshua. Jesus the Greek form of Joshua. Joshua, Jehovah's saviour. The saviour, the saviour that
God sends. The saviour that God sends to
deliver his people. Joshua. How that name would have
resonated with his parents. to be told that their son should
be called Joshua. They knew what Joshua meant. They knew who Joshua was in their
history. They knew the account of Joshua
following Moses and bringing the people across the sea into
the promised land. They knew what that pictured.
They knew it pictured Joshua leading them out of the wilderness,
through death, into a land of promise. They knew the victories
which were wrought by the Lord through Joshua. They knew how
the walls of Jericho fell down. They knew how their enemies were
conquered. They knew the Lord's hand upon
Joshua. They knew what that name meant.
And here their son is to be called by the same name. Joshua, Jesus. What do you know of this name?
What do you know of this name? Not as a name, as a word recorded
on the pages of scripture. Not as a name of someone in history. But what do you know of the meaning
and the power and the significance of this name, Jesus, what does
it mean to you? To you. Matthew goes on, now
all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Jesus, Emmanuel,
the Saviour, but not just a Saviour, but God come to save. God with us, God sent as a Saviour,
God coming into the presence of mankind to deliver his people
from their sins. Jesus wasn't just a man, he was
God. Born man. born man a divine person with
humanity human flesh in union with his divinity God born man
God come to reconcile man unto himself for how could man be
reconciled unto God but that God should come as a man able
to deliver men, able to take men's sins and block them out. Emmanuel, God with us. Oh, how this would have resonated
in the hearts of the parents. Oh, the joy, the wonder, the
awe which would have entered into Joseph's heart. The awe. We read in Luke, of how the shepherds
were in the fields, and the angel appeared unto them and spoke
of the coming of Christ. The angel appeared, feared not,
for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall
be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, Jesus, which is Christ the Lord. the anointed of God, Christ the
anointed, not only a saviour, not only the saviour that God
sent, not only the saviour called Emmanuel, God with us, but anointed
by God as saviour. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased, in whom God dwells, in whom the fullness
of the Godhead dwelt bodily. God came in Christ, in Son. He spake unto mankind in Son,
as Hebrews 1 tells us. He had aforetime spoken by the
prophets, but now in these last days, He has spoken unto us by Son,
whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made
the world, who, being the brightness of His glory, and express image
of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high. Oh this is who came,
His Son, the Creator, God Himself in the person of His Son. He
who was the brightness of God's glory, the express image of his
person, the one through whom God revealed himself unto men,
came into this world which he upheld by the word of his power,
and he came to deliver his people, to save his people from their
sins. And he did. Because Hebrews tells
us, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. This is the one who came,
a savior, Christ the Lord Jesus. Oh, what a name. What power is
in that name? What meaning is in that name?
Whose name? God's name. The Son of God's
name. God in the person of the Son. The Son, the Word of God made
flesh. The One through whom God speaks. He speaks by His Word. He speaks
by His Son. He makes Himself known unto man
through Son. By nature no man has seen God. God's a spirit. God cannot be
seen. But God came in his Son as a
man, and men saw Christ walking and talking and living amongst
them. And in that man, in Jesus, the
Son of God, lived and breathed and spake. He was God, the promised
Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of God. This is what Matthew's
making plain in this opening chapter. He gives us the book
of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham. He takes the genealogy from Abraham
through to David, from David through to the carrying away
into captivity in Babylon, and from there through to the birth
of Jesus, the son of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the son
of Jacob. 14 generations from Jacob to
David, 14 generations from David until the carrying away into
Babylon, and 14 generations from the carrying away into Babylon
unto Christ. From Abraham, the patriarch,
the one led out of Ur of the Chaldees, told to go to the promised
land, we see 14 generations until the King appears on the scene,
David. and then 14 generations until
the people are taken away into captivity. A vivid reminder of
the bondage in which they are in in this world through their
sin. And a reminder to you and I of
the bondage that our sins have brought us into. Captivity Babylon. This world has a grip upon us,
this Babylon of this world, the Egypt, the Babylon of this world
has us under its grip and brings forth our sins and our corruptions
and keeps us bound until such a day as one comes to deliver
us. And we read that 14 generations.
two lots of seven, six lots of seven from the beginning at Abraham. Fourteen generations later, Christ
is born of Mary, Jesus, His name, the Son of God, the Saviour. Oh the meaning in this name,
He's the Saviour, from Jehovah, because none can save but God. Salvation is of the Lord, Jonah
cried out when he was delivered from the belly of the whale.
He knew it. He knew he was lost, Jonah did.
He knew nothing could deliver him but God. He knew the experience. Salvation is of the Lord, of
the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. No one else can save. No other
name can save. No one else will deliver you
from your sins. As the Apostles declared in Acts
4, neither is there salvation in any other. There is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. No other name but Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom ye crucified. You crucified. They said that
to the Jews. They say it to you. Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, when you put him to death in
your heart, When you lived rejecting Him, despising Him, turning away
from Him, apathetic to Him, annoyed at Him, annoyed at the impact
His Gospel might have upon you, annoyed at His people, furious,
hating. When you put Him to death in
your hearts, you crucified Him, whom ye crucified, whom God raised
from the dead. Even by him, the apostle said,
doth this man stand here before you whole? Christ saves. This impotent man in this chapter
was healed by the power of Jesus Christ. And he heals because
he alone has the power to deliver his people from their sins. There's
no other name No other name with this power. Oh do you know the
power of Jesus name? Why is he called Jesus? For he
shall save his people from their sins. Have you got a mountain
of sins that you need to be delivered from? Do you feel their weight? If you do, you'll rejoice, you'll
leap for joy, you'll sing when you hear of the name of Jesus. For here is one who's so called
because he saves from sins. Of who else can it be said throughout
all history, no one, no one can save from sins but Christ, but
Jesus. And He came, He came to save
His people from their sins. If you're His, He came to save
you from your sins. And as Hebrews 1 told us, He
did, when He came, when He had purged us from our sins, He sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He came to save,
He saved and He went to glory, having saved His people with
an eternal salvation. He took away their sins. He took them away. He took them
away as far as the east is from the west. He blotted them out. He made that people to be whiter
than snow. He took their sins which were
as scarlet and made them whiter than snow. He saved them from
their sins. which is why he went forth preaching
his gospel and why he sent forth his apostles preaching his gospel
and why he sends forth preachers today to people like you and
I to preach his gospel to say unto you that to him gave all
the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. All the prophets from
the beginning of time unto the coming of Christ and all the
preachers, disciples, apostles that Christ sent forth, all the
preachers unto this age and to the end of time that come with
his gospel come to say that all the word of God, all his prophets
have had this singular message that if you believe in Christ,
believe on his name, you shall receive. the remission of your
sins they shall be taken away all of them, that mountain of
debt, that burden from which you could never escape, that
burden from which you found no help in self, in man, in this
world, in religion, anywhere, that burden you thought you were
stuck with to the end of time, that burden which would plunge
you into judgment and into hell, he came to take it away. through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. Thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Oh how we need to be saved from
them, past, present and future. What a chain around our necks
they are. Though we may try to change,
they weigh us down, we can do nothing of them. Our past sins
will plunge us into hell. And here's a Saviour who came
to take those sins and block them out. He came to take the
judgement, the wrath of God against those sins, that we should suffer
and He took it. upon himself. He went into the
pit as it were. He plunged the depths of hell
that we should plunge as it were. He felt the fires of God that
we will feel if we have those sins when we enter eternity. He felt them. When we crucified
him, when he was nailed to that cross, When he was put to death,
God laid upon him the sins of all his people. All his people. He took them upon his own back. He took them in his own flesh
and he answered the price of God's justice and wrath against
them. As 1 Peter 2.24 tells us, who
his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that
we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. By whose
stripes ye were healed. Are you among that people of
whom Peter speaks? For ye were as sheep going astray. Are you a sheep that's gone astray? but are now returned unto the
shepherd and bishop of your souls. Have you returned unto God? You
only will through this one, whose name is Jesus, by whose stripes
his people are healed. Did he bear stripes for your
sins? Did he bear your sins in his
own body upon the tree? Did he bear the wrath of God
against those sins? Did he? Hebrews 9 speaks of this. If
the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh. If those
sacrifices of the Old Testament that the Jews offered up year
by year to appease God's wrath in figure appeased it. but in reality never did. If
they could appease God's wrath, then how much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? How much more? For it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. He came for the remission of
sins. He came to save his people from
their sins. And in order to remit your sins,
in order to remit my sins, in order to remit his people's sins,
he must bear them. He didn't come to turn a blind
eye to your sins. He didn't come to say to some
he chose, we'll forget all about them, and we'll forget all about
justice, and we'll pretend they never happened. But he came as
God who must uphold his justice, but who delights in showing mercy. who will in love save a people,
He came as God, desirous to save a people. And in order to save,
He must take their sins away. He must pay the price. and no
one but he could because no one was made man and who was God. Only God made man could reconcile
men unto God. Only God as man could bridge
the gulf between man and God. Bridge that gulf made by our
sins. We need God made man, God as
man, Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus to come and to stand between
the Father and sinners like you and I and to bring in reconciliation. to bear our sins, to take what
we are, to take what we've done and to take it away. Those sins
must be judged, every last one of them. They must be borne,
they must suffer the vengeance of the fires of God's wrath.
Either you will suffer them or someone else will suffer them
in your stead. Well here's the one who came
to take away sins. all of them. Here's the one who
came to bring in reconciliation as man unto God. For only God as man could reconcile
man unto God. Did he reconcile you, a man,
a woman, a child, unto a holy God? Did he take your sins and
take them upon his back, take them in his flesh, bear them
upon himself unto the cross. Was he nailed to the cross in
your place? Did he pay that price that must
be paid? Did he shed his blood to show
that the price was paid in full? To show that he died? Because
sins have a price and that price is death. Nothing less than the
death of the sinner, the soul that sinned will do. If you're
to be delivered from sins, if you're a sinner, the soul must
die. Those sins must be taken away
through death. Blood must be shed. There is
no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. There
is no easy way out. There is no cheap forgiveness.
Salvation is not a light and a trivial thing. Salvation comes
at a cost. As Christ said when he gave the
cup and the bread unto his disciples as a figure of his death to show
by the bread that his body must be broken and by the wine that
his blood must be shed, he said of that cup, this is my blood
of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission
of sins. My blood must be shed if their
sins should be taken away. My blood, Jesus' blood, the Saviour's
blood, Christ's blood, the Anointed's blood, the blood of Emmanuel
as man, the blood of the Son of God walking with us, the blood
of the Anointed, the priest, the great high priest. He was
both priest and sacrifice, prophet and saviour, servant and king,
man and God. And when he died, and when his
blood was shed, he took away every sin of everyone for whom
he died. every child of God throughout
the ages, all the Jews of old who looked by faith unto Him,
all those Jews who were given faith to look, all those disciples
who received Him, all those generations since who've heard His Gospel
and the Spirit of God by His Gospel, those who've been quickened
unto life by that Gospel, those who've had their eyes opened
to see the Saviour, saving them from their sins, his people. He shall save his people from
their sins. Who are saved from their sins?
Whose sins are remitted? Whose sins are washed away? Who
are cleansed by his blood? His people. Jews and Gentiles,
ones and twos, from every tribe, kindred and tongue from out all
the world, a chosen people, an elect people, a people who were
known by God before they were born. A people who were given
unto Christ before he entered this world. A people who were
on Christ's heart, written upon his heart before he was ever
born. Before he was ever named Jesus.
Before he was ever nailed to that cross. Before he bore their
sins. He knew them all. He knows us
intimately. He knew everyone for whom he
suffered. He bore their sins away. Are you among people, that people who have
their burden lifted from off their backs, that people who
have their mountain of sin laid low and made straight, the crooked
places made straight, have you had that mountain taken away? If you're brought by faith to
look unto Christ crucified by you, then you will know what
it is for faith to move mountains, for faith to move the mountain
of your sin. Are you among that people? Has
he blotted your sins out? Did he suffer? Did he cry out
in agony on that cross? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because he bore your sins and
your judgment. Did he cry out? It is finished. Because he blotted out your sins
and drunk up your judgment. to the very last drop. Did he
take it away? Did he? If he did, and if by
faith you can say with joy that you are his and that he is your
saviour, if you can bow the knee to Jesus, then in the end there
will come a day when you will be among that people who at the
name of Jesus as Philippians 2 tells us every knee shall bow
there comes a day when every knee shall bow at the name of
Jesus and you will be amongst those who bow the knee gladly
bow the knee full of praise bow the knee full of joy and hope
and rejoice in because you know who he is you know what his name
means you know what he's done but there are plenty who will
bow the knee to that name on that day, who are yet in their
sins, who will face the wrath of God to come, who have rejected
that name throughout all time, who have heard the gospel and
turned away, who have seen Christians and despised them, who have trampled
the word of God underfoot and trampled the blood of Jesus Christ
underfoot and have crucified him in their heart and they will
bow when it's too late at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow there are plenty of names in this world plenty of
names some big some small, you may have a name for yourself,
you may do great things in this world, you may rise in business,
you may rise in some arena in life, you may become the most
famous, the most revered, the most applauded, oh you may have
a name but in the end you're nothing, born of dust, and to
dust you shall return. And even you, whatever your name,
will bow at this name, at the name of Jesus. You will bow. You will bow. I will bow. We will bow. All will bow at
the name of Jesus. the saviour, but is he your saviour
now before it's too late and before you bow to the knee of
the saviour of others as he passes you by? Oh can you see now Or
are you among those Pharisees of old who say I see when you
are blind? Are you yet blind to these things?
Blind to Him? Blind to His name? Blind to His
power? Blind to His gospel? Blind to
His blood? Blind to His salvation? Blind
to your need? Blind to the terrible judgment
which approaches you. Blind to your sins. Blind to
the wrath of God. Blind to the dark cloud rumbling
above your head. Blind to the knowledge of the
gospel. Are you blind? Oh, if we could see something
of this name. Who this is, what he did, how
wondrous he is. Oh that we should see, oh that
we should know, oh that we should hear. Oh I can speak of him,
but really I'm just getting in his way. I can speak of His name,
but I cannot tell of the riches therein. I can speak of His love,
but I cannot measure the width and the height and the scale
and the breadth of it. I can speak of His salvation,
but I convey so little. I'm just getting in the way of
His glory. But if the Spirit opens your
eyes to see, what a sight! What a sight when
the blind eyes are touched by His finger to see. When He comes
to you as He came to those blind men and touches your eyes and
you open and you see the Saviour in front, you see the Saviour
to your gaze, you look by faith and see the One who shall be
called Jesus. For He saved His people from
their sins. Oh, to have your blind eyes touched. Oh, that he should touch some
blind eyes this day, this hour. Are your eyes blind? Oh, that
he should, by his grace and mercy, touch your eyes. That you then,
with others, might be able by faith, in reality, to call his
name, Jesus, Saviour, Joshua. To call his name Jesus, for he
shall save his people from their sins. And that you might know
that he came and he saved you from your sins. Oh, man.