Would you turn with me to John
Chapter 1? A couple of announcements. Tonight,
we're going to begin a study of 1 Corinthians. I'm really
looking forward to that, and we're going to look at the first
three verses tonight. And also, two weeks from today,
we're going to have a church dinner together. I always look
forward to those, so remember that. John chapter one. Let's pray together. Lord, I ask in Christ's name
that you would indeed meet with us. Lord, we ask that you would speak
in power by that spirit and that you'd give us hearing ears. receptive
hearts. We confess our sin. Lord, our
sin is ever before us. We pray for cleansing and forgiveness. We pray for grace to love you
more and truly to love one another more. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Be with our friends that aren't here. Keep
them by your grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Verse 43. The day following, Jesus would
go forth into Galilee and find Philip, and saith unto him, Follow
me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law
of the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said unto him, Can
there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto
him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile, no deceit. We're looking at a real honest
man, is what our Lord is saying. Now look at Nathaniel's reply.
Nathaniel said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? He'd
never seen this man in his life. How do you know me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, When that was done to the
victory. I saw the now can you imagine
how that must have blown him away? Now he was sitting under
a fig tree. And as far as he knew, no human
I was around. We don't know when this was.
Was it the day before? Was it some event that happened
under the fig tree? I don't know, but can you imagine
how he felt when the Lord said? When nobody else was around and
you thought you were all by yourself, I saw you sitting under that
victory. I knew you even then. Now, can
you imagine how that must have affected Nathaniel? And what
our Lord does at this time is he gives to Nathaniel a glimpse
of his omniscience, and his omnipresence. And what do those words mean?
Omniscience means all knowing. I knew you all together when
you did not know me. How? Because I'm omniscient,
our Lord is saying. I know everything. That's a glorious
thing to think about. You know, the Lord's never learned
anything. He's never been informed of anything. He knows all things. He said, before you knew me,
I knew you. And when you were sitting there
under that fig tree, thinking about whatever you were thinking
about. I was right there. I saw you. The Lord is dealing
with his omnipresence. He's everywhere at once. You
can't go anywhere where he is not. Now, how did Nathaniel feel
at this time when he saw this man standing there that he'd
never seen before? And he says, I know you all together. And when you were sitting under
that fig tree and thought no other human eye was looking upon
you, I was there looking upon you. What our Lord does with
Nathaniel at this time is he confronts him with his omniscience
and his omnipresence. Now, who is the only one who
can be omniscient and omnipresent? There's only one way to answer
that. This is God Himself. Only God is omniscient. Only God is omnipresent. And Nathanael is confronted with
who this man standing before him really is. The omniscient
one. omnipresent One, God Himself. Now look at Nathanael's response
in verse 49. And Nathanael answered and said
unto him, Rabbi, Master, you're the Son of God. You're the King
of Israel. Nathanael, honest so that he
was, immediately yielded to the force of divine truth. You see,
any time you're honest, any time I'm honest, we will yield to
the truth. It's only dishonesty that keeps
us from yielding to the truth, as we considered last week when
we considered Nathaniel being the honest soul, the soul in
whom is no guile. The only thing that prevents
a man from receiving the truth, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ,
is dishonesty. That's it. But Nathanael, honest
soul that he was, he immediately yielded to divine truth concerning
who this was. He says, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Now, look what our Lord said
to him after he made this statement, verse 49, Nathanael answered
and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God. You're God
the son. You're the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
do you believe? You're going to see greater things
than these. Because I give you this glimpse
of my person, demonstrating to you my omniscience and my omnipresence,
how that I am God because of this. Do you believe now in this
passage of Scripture, we're given a very simple and a very powerful
definition of faith. Our Lord said to this man, because
you've seen these things regarding me, you see who I am, you believe. You believe I'm the Son of God.
You believe I am the King of Israel. Do you know what faith
is? Faith is believing who He is. Is it really that simple? Yes. Faith, my dear friends, is believing
who He is. If you believe who He is, you'll
believe everything else. Do you really believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God? Now, do you really believe that?
Do you really believe that He's the uncreated, eternal Son of
God, the One who spake the world into existence? Do you really
believe He's God the Son? Now, if you do, I know that you'll
believe that His sacrifice must be effectual. You can't believe
that He's God and believe that He'd fail at something. If you
really believe He's God the Son, you'll believe that His sacrifice
is effectual. If He died for you, you must
be saved. Do you believe that? If He shed
His precious blood for you, your salvation's already accomplished.
Do you believe He's God the Son? Do you believe that He's the
King of Israel? You believe that he is the Lord
of Lords and the King of Kings? I don't mean that he has a right
to be king if we'll just vote him into office. I don't mean
that at all. I mean he is king and that you right now are in
his sovereign hands and he can do with you whatever he's pleased
to do. That's what it is to believe he's king. Not to believe that
he has a right to be king or he ought to be king, but that
he is king. of Israel. He believed He's God
the Son. He believed He's the King of
Israel. And my dear friends, that's what
faith is. It's believing who He is. I think of what Philip
said to the Ethiopian eunuch. That Ethiopian eunuch said, what
hinders me from being baptized? I want to know the truth. Now,
if there's something that's keeping me from being baptized, I want
to know what it is. Can you tell me? And Philip said, if you believe,
With all your heart, you may." And you know how he answered?
He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's faith. If you believe that He is God
the Son, the King of Israel, You have what the Bible calls
faith. It's believing who he is. You
know, that makes me want to jump for joy, because if that's the
case, I've got faith. I've got it. I believe who he is. Now, the Lord says to him in
verse 50. Because I said unto thee, when you said unto the
fig tree, do you believe? You believe, no doubt. But then
he says, Thou shalt see greater things than these. It's almost as if he said, you
ain't seen nothing yet. You're going to see greater things
than these. Now, what is the Lord referring
to when he says you're going to see greater things than these?
Is he referring to the mighty miracles that he would performing,
you know, the Lord did mighty miracles when he walked upon
this earth. You know, the very next day, the very next day in
this narrative, Nathaniel is going to see the Lord change
water into wine. He's going to see this miracle. What manner of man is this that
can do something like that? You believe he really, literally
did that? Yes, I do. I absolutely believe it. He performed
such mighty miracles. And you think of the miracles
that Nathaniel would see for the next 30 years. He would see
this one heal the sick. And I don't mean like the faith
healers do, where somebody's got one leg that's shorter than
another, and they say heal. I don't mean that phony stuff
that you say. I mean he healed the sick by an act of his will.
People who were born blind, he gave sight to. Literally. Lepers were cleansed. He even
raised the dead. Somebody was dead for three days,
four days. Lazarus, by this time he stinks.
Lazarus come forth and he came forth. Nathanael was going to
see this stuff. Can you imagine getting to be an eyewitness to
these miracles of our Lord? That would have been something,
wouldn't it? He would see demons so afraid of the Lord So afraid
of the Lord that they would grovel in his presence and ask him for
permission to move from one place to another. Now, can you imagine
how afraid you would be if you were in the presence of a demon? A true satanic presence. I'm
scared to death. But you know how scared you'd
be? Those satanic presence were scared of the Lord. They would
tremble in his presence. They were so afraid of him. What
power this man had. This is a man Nathaniel would
watch. When there was a storm going
on and the rain was pounding down and the waves were crashing,
and he would watch this man say, peace, be still, and there would
be a great calm. He saw a man who could control
the weather. They said, what manner of man is this that even
the winds and the sea do obey him? What impressive things they
saw. Nathaniel would see him Bring
food into existence. Create something from nothing.
There was nothing. Nothing. And he made something
out of nothing. He created food that had not
been there before. He brought matter into existence. Nathanael
would see these greater things that the Lord did. He would watch
him walk on water. Can you imagine watching someone
actually walk on water? Water defined the law of physics.
Nathanael saw all these things regarding the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are these the greater things the Lord's talking about? Nathanael,
you're impressed because you've seen my omniscience and omniscience,
but you haven't seen anything yet. You're going to see more
impressive things than this. Is this what the Lord's talking about,
these miracles? No. Do you know why I say that? Because nobody ever believed
by seeing the miracle. It hadn't happened. You know,
there were a lot of people who witnessed these physical miracles
of the Lord. There were a lot of people that
knew when Lazarus was raised from the dead, but that didn't make
them believe. No one has ever believed by seeing a miracle. Do you know if I had miracle
working power right now, and I could do all this stuff the
Lord did, that wouldn't make one person believe. Might make
the headlines, but it wouldn't make one person have true saving
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody ever believed because
they saw a miracle. Yet our Lord says to Nathanael
at this time, you're going to see greater things than these.
Now, what does he mean by that? Well, look in verse 51. And he
saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you
shall see heaven open. Heaven had been closed. You're going to see it open up.
And you're going to see the very heart of God. That's what you're
going to see. You're going to see what God
is really like, not just stuff that you can learn by logic and
inference. For instance, logic would tell
you that if God is, God must be omniscient. Logic tells you
that. I mean, you just use some reason.
God must know all things if he's God. That's logic. That just
makes sense to think something like that. What about His omnipresence?
Well, God is a spirit. God is the spirit everywhere.
Logic would tell you if He's God, He must be everywhere or
He wouldn't be God. I mean, there are certain things
you can know logically about God. You can use your sense of
reason and come up with things about God. But He says we're
not talking about stuff like that. We're talking about greater
things than these. You're going to see heaven open.
You're going to see who God really is. You're going to find out
what holiness really is. When you see me walking upon
this earth, you're going to see what holiness really is. The
only holy man to ever live. You're going to see my perfect
obedience. You're going to see that this
holy God really does forgive sin. Do you find that a greater thing?
Greater things than these? Boy, I tell you what, that's
something I want to know. Yes, I want to know all I can about God. No
correct things regarding Him. His omniscience and omnipresence
and omnipotence and sovereignty and so on and all these attributes
of God. But oh, I want to know that this holy God really does
forgive sin. You can't figure that out by
logic, can you? There's nothing that would lead you to believe
that he does just from mere logic. You can see where he's omnipresent,
but not that he'll forgive sin. You're going to see how sin is
actually put away. Put away. To this extent, if
Christ put away my sin, that means I don't have any sin. Now, that's a greater thing.
My sin put away. To the extent before this holy
God, I really do not have sin. That aside, pre-think about it
even now. As God looks at me, He sees somebody, if I'm a believer,
and these are the greater things that He's speaking of, if I'm
a believer, He sees me, this holy God, as somebody without
fault. Blameless. Talking about greater
things? You're going to see greater things
than these. Are you impressed with my omniscience and omnipresence?
You're going to see how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly. You're going to see, you're going
to witness, you're going to experience how God can remain completely
consistent with His justice and punish all sin. He said, I'll
by no means clear the guilty. You're going to see how God can
remain completely consistent with His perfect, absolute justice
and yet clear somebody who's guilty in a way that they're
not. He doesn't clear the guilty.
He's just and yet justify someone who's unjust. Now, I find that
that is something that that I find so great, greater things than
that. God can actually be just and
yet justify me. I'm guilty. I'm a sinner. How
can God justify a sinner? That's the question. That's the
issue. That's the greater things you're going to see. You're going
to see how God can be utterly, wholly just, and yet justify
somebody like you. And right now, every believer
has this blessing. I'm justified. I'm justified. That means I'm not guilty in
God's sight. This is the heritage of every believer. Not guilty.
This is better than just forgiveness. Justification. Do you consider
this a greater thing, greater things than these? Well, you
see, you're going to see how God. Can actually bring good
out of evil. That's a great thing, isn't it?
What's the most evil thing to ever take place? Now, I bet everybody in this
room knows the answer to that question. The most evil thing
to ever take place is the death, the murder of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, they hated me without
a cause. If there was ever something that
demonstrates pure evil, it's when men took the holy, spotless
Son of God and nailed Him to a cross. That's evil. What is the greatest good that
ever took place? the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God brings good out of evil. He takes the most horrible event
to ever take place and he glorifies himself and he saves his people. And this is where we get that
confidence that all things work together for good to them that
love God. Even the evil things. God brings good out of evil and
only God can do that. Greater things than these are
you going to see. You're going to see how God can
take a sinner and make him exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
that a greater thing? He can take somebody like me
and make me perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
So you can't see the difference between me and him. And that's
the greater things God does. Well, how does he do that? You hear the gospel, you'll see. You hear the gospel, you'll see.
But that's the greater things he does. He actually takes a
sinner and makes him like Christ. You're going to see how God can
actually force somebody to be willing. And you think of that. You were
talking about a great thing. You know, I cannot make you willing. I don't I'm not going to try.
I present the truth. I know that's up to the Lord.
I can't make you willing to be saved by grace. I can't make
you willing to receive the gospel. I can't do anything for you.
That's beyond my power. I can't make you willing. And
I'll tell you what, if you try to force me to be willing, I'm
going to come out swinging. I just know me enough to know
if somebody tries to force me into something, I'm going to
object to it. You can't make me be willing.
God can make you be willing to where you're actually willing.
Willing. Thy people shall be willing.
In the day of thy power, God can take you and make you willing.
And that's a great thing, isn't it? That God can actually make
you willing. You are going to see how a man
can suffer the loss of all things and count it all but done. That
he may win Christ and be found in him. Now, that's a greater
thing, isn't it? You're going to lose everything.
He's saying that to Nathaniel. You know, Nathaniel is, according
to tradition, all the disciples ended up being put to death.
You're going to be put to death for me. And you're going to count
it a privilege to have that done. And it's not going to be a sacrifice
to you. You're going to count all things but done, that you
may win Christ and be found in him. Now, is that a great thing
or not? Greater things in days are you going to see. You're
going to see the power of the grace of God, how God's grace
really does save a man. Grace really saves and keeps
a man saved. You're going to see the power
of the gospel preached. No armies are needed. No great
men, no intellectuals are needed. It's just the simple message
of the gospel that wins the day. You're going to see the power
of the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes. You're going to see the very
power of God in this message. No human help is needed. Truly, Nathaniel, you're going
to see greater things than these. I just mentioned a few of the
great things that a believer is going to see. But they're
greater. And look what he says back to
our text. Look at verse 50. 51. He saith unto him, Verily,
verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see
heaven open. And the angels of God Ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. And here's the great thing
you're going to see. You're going to see heaven opened.
Aren't you interested to see what heaven? I'm not talking
about. Simply seeing what kind of existence
people have in heaven, because I can't I can't imagine that
I can't imagine what people who are in heaven are. are doing.
I know they're worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ and singing
the praises of the Lamb. But when he's talking about heaven
being opened, it's not talking about, well, this is the stuff
you're going to be doing in heaven. He's talking about the heart
of God being opened. He's talking about God opening
up to us who he is. Heaven had been closed, but now
you're going to see heaven opened and you'll see the angels of
God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. I love the
way the Lord calls himself the Son of Man. The Son of God calls
himself the Son of Man. Now, the Lord is referring to
Jacob's dream. You've all heard of Jacob's ladder.
Let's turn over to Genesis chapter 28. Genesis 28. Let me give you the setting. Jacob is Getting out of town. Jacob is leaving. Esau is after
him. He is afraid. He's swindled Esau. His parents have told him to
leave and go to the town of Padanaran and look for a wife there. That's
where he's going to meet his wife. But he's all by himself,
and he's never really heard from the Lord before. He's never heard. He heard what Abraham said about
the Lord. He heard what his dad, Isaac,
told him about the Lord. had many, a lot of information
about the Lord, but he's never really heard from the Lord before.
And he's out by himself. Now, look in verse 10 of Genesis
28. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place
and tarried there all night because the sun was set. Now, the imagery
here is so powerful. He's going into darkness. And
actually, this is the beginning of a very dark time in his life.
Twenty years of darkness, yet the Lord speaks to him in a very
powerful way at this time, but yet he was getting ready where
the sun was set and he took the stones of that place and put
them for his pillows. Now, he wasn't very comfortable,
was he? Can you imagine using a rock for a pillow? And that's
what he did, a big stone he used for a pillow. And he lay down
in that place to sleep, verse 12, and he dreamed And behold
a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven, and behold the angels of God ascending and descending
upon it." Now this is what the Lord Jesus is referring to when
He talks about the angels of God. You're going to see heaven
open. You're going to see I'm that ladder. You're going to
see the angels of God ascending and descending on that ladder.
Now what's a ladder for? It's very simple. A ladder is
to get you up. A ladder is to go down. And the
Lord likens Himself to a ladder. He's the ladder that gets you
up into heaven. He's the ladder through which
all of the blessings of God descend down to you. Now let's think
about that for a few moments. He is the ladder to bring you
up into heaven. Christ is the way you and I ascend
to heaven. Now, I want you to think of the
ascension of Christ. I don't want you to think about you climbing up
a ladder and all of a sudden ending up in heaven. You've missed the
point if that's what you're thinking about. I want you to think about
the ascension of Christ. He lived. He lived a perfect
life, worked out a perfect righteousness before the law of God. He died
that horrible death on Calvary as the sin-bearing substitute,
being made sin. He was raised from the dead,
literally. He walked out of that tomb. My sin put away. Finished. And He ascended back
into glory. Now, do you know when He ascended
back into glory, He didn't go alone? You see what He did? He did as
a representative. He lived for somebody. He died for somebody. He was raised for somebody. When He was raised from the dead,
all of God's elect were raised with Him. When He put away the
sins of His people, they were put away. What He did, He did
as a representative. When He kept the law, He kept
the law for His people. And when He ascended back into
the glory, back into the presence of His Father, you know who went
with Him? everybody he died for. This is how real union with Christ
is. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What he did, I did. Where he is, I am. Who he is,
I am. That's how real union with Christ
is. When He ascended back to the very presence of the Father,
I ascended with Him. He's called the Lord of hosts.
Remember that ascension psalm in Psalm 24 when He goes back
into glory? Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He's got a bunch with Him. When
He ascends back to glory, all of the elect ascended back with
Him. You remember that verse of Scripture?
John 14, 6. No man cometh to the Father,
but by me. You know that verse. No man cometh
to the Father, but by me. Now when I've looked at that
verse, I've always looked at it this way. I'm not dare going
to come into God's presence pleading anything to Christ alone. I'm
not going to plead my works. I'm not going to plead the doctrine
I believe. I'm not going to I'm not going to plead the fact that
I'm a preacher. I'm not going to plead anything about me. Lord,
hear me because of something I've done or something I intend
to do. No, hear me for Christ's sake. That's the only reason
I have that God would hear me. Hear me for Christ's sake. Hear
me as if I am Christ himself. I plead nothing but Christ. No
man comes to the Father but by me. Now, that's true. But I'm
not real sure that that's all together with that passage of
Scripture's teaching. That's included. But what our Lord is
saying is no man comes to the Father except I bring him. No man comes to the Father except
by me. I must bring him to the Father. The only way you or I can be
brought to the Father is if the Lord Jesus as our representative
brings us to the Father. Now it's true. We plead only
his name, but he doesn't say no man comes to the Father except
through me, although that's true. He says no man comes to the Father
except by me. When the Lord has said that. That's what I did, too. And I'm standing before you right
now, somebody really believes that. I really believe that. He is my salvation for God. He brought me to the Father.
Heaven is open to us through Christ. We ascend through His
ascent. And a ladder is not only used
to ascend, a ladder is used to descend. All of God's blessings,
every blessing that God has, comes to me through the ladder. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
they come to me through him. Hold your finger there in Genesis
28 and turn to Ephesians chapter one. Verse three. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, that verse of
Scripture tells me that if I'm a believer and that if you're
a believer, we already possess every spiritual blessing. Is
that what it says? All blessings, all the blessings
of forgiveness, of grace, of justification, of sanctification,
of redemption, whatever blessing you want to talk about. Every
believer already has it in Christ. Now, why does he get it? How is it that God can continually bless
me when I continually sin against
him. And that's dealing with the fact
of the matter. How is it that these blessings
that can continually come down to me and God not withhold them
and God not revoke them? How is that? Because He gives you those blessings
for Christ's sake only. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. I really believe that I have
all blessings. The Bible tells me I do. And I believe that I have them
only for one reason. They descend to me from the Father
for Christ's sake. He Himself is the latter. Every blessing we have, faith,
repentance, love to Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, perseverance,
all these spiritual blessings, they are mediated to us through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we have them.
He doesn't give them to us for our sakes, but for His sake. Christ Jesus himself is the latter. Now, he said you're impressed
with seeing my omniscience and omnipresence. You're going to
see greater things than these. You're going to see heaven opened
and you're going to see ascent and descent coming through this
ladder of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, go back to Genesis 28. We're
going to close by reading Jacob's response to this. Genesis 28. And he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder set up on the earth. And remember, he felt like he
was in darkness at this time, and this is the light God gives
him. He dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels
of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood
above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and
the God of Isaac, The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give
it, and to thy seed. Now, whenever you see who the
Lord Jesus Christ is, you see what God gives freely. He says,
I'm going to give you this. Look at verse 14. And thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth. And that shall spread abroad
to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. And he's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ coming
through him. There's the gospel in thy seed. That one who's coming,
the son of man, who is the son of God, all the families of the
earth are going to be blessed. And look at this blessing. He
says he's going to give Jacob, Jacob, that sinful man. He said, behold, And he says
this to every believer, this is just as much for you as it
is for Jacob, if you're one of his. He says, behold, I am with
thee. And we'll keep thee in all places,
whether thou goest. We just heard Psalm 121, son,
the Lord is thy keeper. That's a wonderful thing to think
about, the Lord is going to keep me. And wherever I go, he'll
be there. I am with thee, will keep thee
in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again unto
this land. For I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Now I want
you to think about this. The Lord's not going to leave
you until He's done that which He's spoken of you. You know
what He's spoken of you if you're a believer? He's going to make
you perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And He's
not going to leave you until that's done. And once that's
done, obviously He's never going to leave you ever. Verse 16,
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said, Surely the Lord's in
this place. And I knew it not. And he was afraid. And said, How dreadful is this
place? And you know, when somebody sees the Lord, it's going to
scare them. How dreadful is this place? This is none other but
the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. And
Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he put
for his pillows and he set it up for a pillar. and poured oil
upon it, the top of it. And he called the name of that
place Bethel. The house of God is what that
word means, but the name of the city was called Luz at the first.
And Jacob bowed a bow, saying, If God will be with me and will
keep me in this way that I go and will give to me bread to
eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's
house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God." And you know,
I can vow that vow if the Lord does something for me. If the Lord has mercy on me and
gives me grace. If the Lord keeps me. If the
Lord provides for me. He provides Christ as my food
and my clothing. If He gives me grace. If the
Lord does this for me. then God's going to be my God.
If God keeps me, I'll be kept. If God preserves me, I will persevere. I really believe that. If the
Lord keeps me, if He does this for me, I'm going to, I vow,
I'm going to stick it out as He enables me to do it, is what
He's saying. I vow that vow. That's not a
vow made in the strength of the flesh, is it? He's saying, I
know I'm only going to do this as the Lord enables me to do
it. But He says, I'm vowing this vow. Verse 21, so that I come again
to my father's house in peace. That's what I want, to come into
my father's house in peace, the peace of what he's done for me.
Then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I set for
pillar shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give
me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. He knew everything
he had was what God gave him anyway. And he says, I'll surely
give the tenth unto thee. You know, the response to grace,
if the Lord gives it to me, I won't give back. That's the response
of grace. Greater things than these shall
you see. I hope the Lord causes us to
see these greater things. Yes, we're impressed with His
miracles and so on, but how great is it? That the Lord can take
somebody like you. And make you just like his son. Is that great or what? Let's
pray together.