Second, Timothy Chapter 2. Thankful for the Lord's mercy.
In. Traveling mercies and. The faithfulness
of the men that stood here in my absence and. All the men that
came yesterday to or had part of the workday. Thank them in
for that. We have brethren in Iowa that I didn't know existed
and now I do. And so they send their love and
they refer to us, and I have to say us now because I'm part
of you. Yankees is what they called us. And I said, wait a
minute now, I'm not from up there. But the Lord gave us good meetings
and I was very encouraged with them and their testimony of our
Lord. So they told me to make sure
I tell everyone hi, so hi from Iowa. Second Timothy, chapter
two. This is Paul's second letter
to his son in the faith, as he calls him, his son in the faith. Paul encourages him to study,
to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. In religion,
we so often would put pressure on men, well, you better study
to show yourself approved to God. That word study means hasten.
And that word approved means not counterfeit, not a counterfeit. What does he mean? Diligently
seek Christ. That's what that means. He's
saying, Timothy, get in the scripture and find Christ and declare him.
Declare him alone. Not assuming that Timothy is
pretending, but this is what he's saying. Don't be a counterfeit.
Declare Christ truthfully and faithfully. This is the encouragement.
Rightly divide the word of truth. Declare Christ alone. This is
what's approved of the Lord. This is what's ordained in purpose.
And as he says, fight the good fight of faith, that's how we
fight the good fight of faith, is we declare Christ. We look
to Christ alone in everything. In every move that we make, in
every thought that we have, in every task that's before us,
we long to look to him, don't we? That's how we fight the fight
of faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. It's not in seeing us and ourself, but it's in seeing
him, isn't it? And as Paul continues to encourage
Timothy, he says to shun profane, to avoid vain babblings. And
he gives two examples, two examples of these that are called up in
vain babblings. Now look in verse 18, 2 Timothy
chapter two, Verse 17, and their word will
eat as doth the canker of whom is harmonious and philatous,
who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection
is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. So these,
this harmonious and philatous are saying the resurrection's
already passed. Therefore, they've called some
to err. Their faith failed. They went
away from the truth. They believe what these two were
saying. This is vain babblings is what he's describing. Well,
how is it that they can be turned away that their faith failed?
They were never given true faith to begin with. See, if we can
leave, we'll leave. If we can believe something else,
we will believe something else. If left to ourself, we will turn
away and our faith will fail because it's not in or of Christ. It means they didn't have saving
faith to begin with. Now, we know that the resurrection
has not happened, and this is not something that we hear and
think, oh no, what if I missed it? No, and by faith we look
to Christ. We don't look at signs, we don't
look at evidences, we don't look at circumstances, we don't look
at the world around us, we look to Christ. And these men that
are doing these vain babblings and they're promoting self and
they're promoting fear and fear mongering, it's the same today. They're not necessarily saying
that the resurrection has happened and you missed it, but they're
saying that It's the end times. I know that you've been, if you
watch the news lately, you know everything that's going on there.
And boy, the religious community is all over it. They're, oh boy,
it's definitely time now. You better get your life straightened
out. You better start living a better life. You better start
doing this. What does faith say? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. What does faith do? Look to Christ.
Don't look at circumstances. Don't look at the world around
you. It's been the end times ever since the beginning. The
last days when Christ ascended, it was referred to as the last
days then. How much more so is it now? We
know that it's the end times. We know that it's the time of
the Lord's return, draweth nigh. Does that give us fear or give
us hope? Does that cause us to be afraid? Perhaps for our loved ones that
we care for, but for ourself, if we're looking to Christ, that's
gonna be the most glorious day of them all. That's the eternal
day. When the glory of Christ is revealed
in his people, that's what our hope is. Men are saying it's the end times
because of what they see, but faith looks to Christ. Faith
looks to Christ. One thing I've determined as
your pastor and one thing we have determined as a congregation
to say to each other and from this pulpit every time we stand
is faith looks to Christ. And that seems like a simple
statement, but it's an impossibility unless the Lord causes us to
have the faith to do so. It's impossible to look to him
and rest in him as all unless he causes us to do so. So what
do we cry out for? Lord, give me this faith. Calls
me to rest in you, calls me not to look around and don't let
me look internally or externally for anything. Calls me to look
to Christ. That's our only hope, isn't it?
Otherwise, we base our ideals on what we see, and that's not
faith. It's not faith. Well, we know it is the end times
and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that, but I thought
it necessary. It's in our text. So I knew it
was necessary to mention it. And I thought it was, I was saying
ironic is unbelief. It's not ironic. It's purpose
that the Lord gave me a message on the sign of the times before
anything ever happened this couple of weeks ago or last week or
whatever it was. Sign of the time. What does that sign? It's
the same sign that it's always been. Lord said, a wicked and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but none shall
be given but that of the prophet Jonah. What was that sign? The
resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's the sign for his people.
There's our hope in our salvation as God was satisfied with his
son and resurrected him. If you want a sign, that's it.
And that's the only one that'll ever be given. The Lord's people
rest in that sign. Because we do hear that it's
the end times, Paul declares in Romans 13, knowing the time,
it's now high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. Every second that ticks by is
a second closer to eternity. Every second that ticks by is
one more heartbeat closer. We only have an allotted amount
of heartbeats. Did you know that? We only have a set amount of
heartbeats. Every time it ticks, every time it thumps, it's one
more closer to our last heartbeat. We only have so many breaths
that are given of the Lord. And every breath that we take,
it's one closer to our last breath. Where's our hope? Better be in
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It better be in him. And the
only way it can be is if he's given faith for it to be. Paul's
not telling Timothy, well, you better get your life straightened
out. You know that you see the times, you see the sign of the times,
you see this and you see that, you better have a, you better
work on your personal relationship with God. Have you ever heard
that before? Men say God wants to have a personal relationship
with you. God does not want for anything. Our God, the sovereign God that's
seated, he does not want anything. He purposed all things. Does that comfort you? That comforts
me. He's not waiting on me to do
something. He did it all. He's not looking to my righteousness.
He's not looking to my efforts. He's not looking to my consent.
No, the only way that we'll see that we're dead is if he makes
us alive first. The only way that we'll know
that we're blind is if he causes us to have sight first. The only
way that we'll know that we're lame is whenever he gives our
legs strength to walk. I didn't realize I was lame.
I didn't know that I was blind. I didn't see that I was dead.
A dead man doesn't know. There's no brain function there,
is there? There's no way someone can know. When they're made alive,
I was dead, and now, what did the young man say? Whereas, was
this man a sinner? They said, accuse the Lord Jesus
Christ of being a sinner. We know he's a sinner, because
he healed you on the Sabbath. This young man was blind from
birth, and the Lord healed him. What did he say? Well, whether
he's a sinner, I know not. This one thing I know, whereas
I was blind, now I see. And that's our confession. I
used to be blind and now I see. What do you see? I see my sin
and I have no hope in my, in atoning for it, for them. And I see the Savior who did.
He's my hope. He's my rest. Paul's not telling Timothy to
straighten up his life. Paul's not telling Timothy, you
better work on your personal relationship with God. Paul is
telling Timothy this one thing. Look in 2 Timothy 2.19. Nevertheless,
regardless of what you've heard, regardless of what Hymadius and
Philetus have said, regardless of what society says, regardless
of what the news says, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth
sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. I've titled this message, This
Seal, This Seal. I love the wording that Paul
uses here. He calls it the foundation of
God. That tells us multiple things.
Number one, who is it from? Who's the doer of it? Who gets
all the glory for it? It's the foundation of God. It's from him, it's by him, it's
for him, it's to him. It's his foundation. It's his
foundation. He's telling us, nevertheless,
or in spite of everything that you see, besides opinions, the
foundation of God standeth sure. It has this seal. The Lord knoweth
them that are his. Nothing that he has purposed
can be changed. Nothing that he has purposed
can be changed. It can't be thwarted. It can't
be altered. It can't be diminished. Nothing
that he has purposed can be changed, including salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ purposed to die for the people that the Father
elected to redeem them, and he did so. Call his name Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sin. The Lord successfully
redeemed everyone he died for. But those that are led away from
the truth. They never received the truth
because they're never. Given faith to believe. I love the verse. If you look
back where it says in verse 13, if we believe not. Yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. What
does that mean? All those who were in Christ
when he died were made the righteousness of God in him. When Christ died,
his people died in him. He put away the sin of his people. It was an attempt. He did it.
Therefore, he remaineth faithful. This is such good news. Regardless
of what we do or don't do, we can't mess it up. He remaineth
faithful. There's our hope, his faithfulness,
not my faithfulness, his faithfulness. Because of his faithfulness,
the foundation of God standeth sure. The Lord saved. That's past tense. The Lord calls
at his appointed time and the Lord keeps by his own power.
Paul's saying, don't look to self for anything. Look into
the foundation of God. What is that foundation? It's
his word, it's his oath, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we're sealed with,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God. See, it all began with,
you read the beginning of the book, haven't you? In the beginning,
God, it all began with him. and by His grace and according
to His purpose, it all ends with Him as well. In the last book,
we can read in Revelation chapter 22, verse 21, in the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. It ends with Him
too. In the beginning, God, and in
the end, the Lord Jesus Christ, it's the same. It's all about
Him. It's all about Him. If it begins
with Him and it ends with Him, What makes the difference? Moreover,
who makes the difference? Is it what I've done for him? Is it what I haven't done? Or is it what he has done? It's what he has done, isn't
it? It's what he has done to usward because of the foundation
that he laid, the cornerstone in Zion, because of his finished
work on the cross of Calvary, sealed with the promise, I will
redeem thee. What did he say in the book of
Isaiah chapter 40? He said, uh, I've bought you. I, uh, I, he bought us with his
own blood. He said, I've, I've, you can,
uh, turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40. That's why I couldn't bring it
to remembrance. It's Isaiah 43 that I was trying to remember.
So Isaiah 43, listen to what he says here. Look how many eyes
the Lord uses. Isaiah 43, but now thus saith
the Lord that created thee. So this started with God doing
something, didn't it? What did he do? He created. This is what
it all started with. In the beginning, God created
thee. O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for
I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. See, that's a, that's possession,
isn't it? He owns his people. He purchased
his, how did he purchase them? With his own blood. Therefore,
when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.
And through the rivers, they shall not overthrow thee. When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee. And here's the only reason, for
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I
gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee, since thou
was precious in my sight. Because you were precious, I've
made you honorable, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved
thee. Therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the North,
give up, and to the South, keep. See, this is the Lord's authority. He's speaking, and everyone obeys. Do we see that? He's saying,
I will say to the North, give up, and to the South, keep, not
back. Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of
the earth, even everyone that is called by my name. For I have
created him for one reason, for my glory. I have formed him,
yea. I have made him this is this
is the Lord's doing. This is the foundation. This
is where it all started with God creating with God doing with
God ordaining with God purposing. And everything that he purposed
he successfully accomplished for his people. It's not what
we've done for him. It's what he's done for us. It's
his foundation and his foundation began with a promise. with a
promise. I've created thee. I've called
thee by thy name. I have purchased thee. I've done
all this. You're mine. You're mine. I've bought you.
I've bought you. That's good news. Scripture says
we are not our own, but where he is, we've been bought with
a price. We're not left to ourself anymore. Thinking like these,
this, uh, this Hymenaeus and Philetus, that they've got it
all figured out. Well, the resurrection's already happened. Just give us
Christ. I don't know. I don't need signs
and we don't need signs and wonders, do we? Just tell me about the
foundation and how firm that foundation is. Otherwise, I have
no hope. I have no comfort. This foundation
is unshakable. It's sealed with the oath of
God. Who's going to who's going to change that? Who can? It's
impossible for God to lie. And that's one of the attributes
we love about our God. It's impossible for him to lie.
And when he said it is finished, we believe that, don't we? We
believe that. Herein is the Lord's foundation
of God's people. When he said, I will, God chose. God chose to do something. I
will. I have. I love that it's always, It's
past tense. He's always seen us in his darling
son. And my pea brain can't wrap around that, but I believe it.
I believe it. It's the foundation. It's because
of his attributes. It's because of who he is. Everything
about our Lord starts with I will. And I love that it ends with
you shall. When the Lord says, I will, he has purpose to do
something. And if any good is going to come
to us, it must come through and by him. Because the scripture
says, every good gift comes down from the father of lights. Not
some of them, not most of them, all, every single one. So unless
the Lord says, I will redeem you and you shall be redeemed,
we have no hope of redemption, do we? But he said that. He said
that to his people. He said, I will redeem you. I
will, he says, I have redeemed you. I've called you by thy name,
thou art mine. This is all past tense. This
is, this is difficult to understand, but if you can imagine for a
moment, time as it really is, we see eternity and the vastness
of it. We can't enter into eternity because we're all carnal. We're
all mortal. We're talking about No time whatsoever. And everything
about our lives is so, we're so, I don't even know the right
word to call it, constrained by time. We're so devoted to
time. Everything that causes stress
most of the time is time. And if it's money, the issue,
if you had more time, you could get more money, right? So most
of the time, all of our problems come down to time. But we're
talking about eternity, where time doesn't exist, and how are
you gonna measure time and eternity? Well, you can't. The Lord made
time to redeem his people. It's a device of his orchestra,
his glorious orchestra in salvation. He's not constrained or constrained
by it. He's not restrained or constrained
by anything. And this time that he made, every second that ticks
by, as I mentioned, is one more second of his purpose coming
to pass. He made time to redeem his people. I can't enter into that, but
one day when we are face to face with him, we see him as he is,
we're made like him, we won't remember time. It'll be almost
like I guess I could say a figment of our imagination, like it's
not reality, eternity's reality, and here we have this blip of
something, and it's faded away. How do we enter into that? I
don't know, but it had to come to pass, according to his will,
that time was created to redeem his people, and everything that
we get so worked up about is something that's going to end,
time. Time is going to end. Rest in
knowing that the foundation of God standeth sure, regardless
of time. regardless of time. The foundation
of God stand as sure regardless of eternity. God is the inhabiter
of eternity. He is the author of all things
and the finisher of faith. He's the one that ordained all
things according to his purpose. Rest, this foundation is sure
because he gave his promise, he gave his seal on it. Now everything about our God
starts with I will, and by his grace to his people, it ends
with you shall. You shall. Everything about salvation
is simply received. It's not by us doing something.
It's not by us doing anything. It's by him doing something.
And he did. By him bestowing life, giving
repentance and faith. I said this Wednesday, but this
is so important, receiving. Receiving is not the cause of
salvation. It's the result of it. Salvation
was wrought on the cross of Calvary. You and I received this gift
of life. The Lord says live and then we
see salvation was accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ.
If we Somebody said, well, you have to receive it in order to
have life. No, you have, you receive it because of life. How
is a dead man going to receive something? He says, live, and
we receive all the things that he has purposed, all the grace
that he has purposed, all the faith that he has purposed. Believing
is not the cause of salvation. Believing is the evidence of
life and faith. And that faith looks to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. That faith looks to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. You ask people, do you love the
Lord? Most will say yes. But if we
love him, it's because he first loved us. He's the first cause
of all things. He's the first cause of all things. We loved him. It's because he
chose in the covenant of grace to love his people, not because
of a decision we made, but because of a decision he made. I will
and you shall. What did he say in Jeremiah?
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. I can't explain to you
how that his love never started. I met my wife in time, never
knew who she was. I loved my wife. I didn't love
her before I met her. Maybe there was a longing for
a love, but I didn't know her. The Lord's always, always, always
known his people and always loved his people. It's everlasting.
His love didn't start. Think about that. I can't. How
do I grasp that? But that's what everlasting means.
It never had a beginning and never had an end. Can you rest
in that? There's assurance in that foundation. There's a seal,
his seal of approval on his son is all the evidence we need.
Look to Christ. There's a rest in that, not in
my love, but his love. Because of his love, he says,
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Not because
you love me, but because I love you. I'm gonna draw you unto
me. I'm gonna say live and I'm gonna
bring you to the knowledge of the truth and I'm gonna reveal
my son unto you as your savior. I'm gonna show you your sin.
I'm gonna show you that you deserve hell and there's nothing you
can do to get rid of one sin. You can't pay, we can't pay for
a single sin, can we? Not one sin, not one. Lord Jesus
Christ took every one of them and paid for them. He says, because
I've loved thee, because I love thee, I'm gonna draw you to this
truth. I'm gonna bring you to the knowledge of this truth.
I'm gonna say unto you, live. I will and you shall. This is
the foundation of God. that standeth sure in the covenant
of grace. 1 John 4 says here in his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us. When did he love
us? Before time. Before time. And what did that love accomplish?
He tells us, he sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Well, whenever I was born, Is
that whenever whatever the Lord had purposed became effectual?
No, this was before time ever began. The Lord did something.
You and I are born in this time and given physical life, but
everything regarding the Lord is eternal. It's eternal. There's so much rest in this
that everything that he has done is from the foundation of the
world, and it's all because of his great, unchangeable love
towards his people. Before time began, the father
entered into a covenant with the son and the Holy Spirit.
Father would elect a people, the son would redeem those people,
and the spirit in time regenerates those people. This was all great
designs of grace. You and I were not part of that
equation. We are the benefactors. We are
the recipients of his grace. We are the we come to the knowledge
of the truth by his mercy and grace when he says live. But
you and I didn't have anything to do with it. We didn't offer
one work. We didn't. We didn't. What could
we have contributed at the cross of Calvary? What would it what
would it have done good if we could have nothing? Christ Jesus
had to do it all, did he? Did the Lord Jesus Christ do
everything on the cross of Calvary necessary for our salvation?
Yes. Yes, I believe that. That's a
foundation I can rest in. I don't have any foundation.
Everything around me is sinking sand, and myself, there's sinking
sand. I have no hope in myself, no hope in the world that we
live in. Well, I can rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ because everything he purposed came to pass. And
everything he purposed is coming to pass. And everything he purposed
is going to come to pass. It is finished. We rest in this
foundation. See, it's not presumptuous. If
you have a bulletin, you've probably seen that little article I wrote.
It's not presumptuous to rest all of our hope, put all of our
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It's not presumptuous
to hope in his finished work alone for our salvation. That's
not presumptuous. It's unbelief not to. It's unbelief
not to. Faith looks to Christ and completely
rests in him. This is the call that goes forth.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we can, we will. The Lord has to enable. But that
is the call that goes forth. Believe him alone. Don't look
to self. Don't look to society. Look to
Christ alone. Everything regarding his foundation,
the covenant of grace, was sealed with his promise, purpose before
time, sealed according to his word, I will and you shall. I will redeem you and you shall
be redeemed. I love you. That's what the Lord says to
his people with an everlasting love. And because of this love,
I'm going to save you from your sin that you cannot save yourself
from. Aren't you glad that he didn't offer that to you? He
did it, and then he just enlightens us on it. This is what I've done
for you. This is what I've, when I saw you, what the scripture
says, I believe it's in Ezekiel, he talks about, he said, when
I passed by you, you were polluted in your own blood. You were dead.
None had compassion on you. None pitied you. But when I saw
you, I spread my skirt over you. I have bought you. I washed you. No one swaddled you. I washed
you. I said, until you live, and you lived. That's my hope. I can see myself in that state
of polluted, being just an abomination to Him, and yet He chose to love. He chose to redeem. And He was
successful in doing so. I'm thankful the Lord knoweth
them that are His. And how do we know He knoweth them that
are His? Well, first, He told us, but second of all, He chose them.
He chose them unto salvation, unto eternal life, all for His
glory. It is His sure foundation. It is His everlasting covenant. It's His everlasting love. All of these things are hand
in hand. You can't separate them. Everything about His work is
I will and you shall. From the beginning, from the
very beginning, we see the fall of man. And if the Lord doesn't
do something for Adam and Eve after the fall, then you and
I have no hope. We have no hope whatsoever. What's
the Lord do? Well, first of all, when they
ate the fruit, and I found this amazing when I saw this, it says
they saw themselves as naked. They saw, they didn't know what
sin was, but it was revealed to them, we've sinned, we are
naked, we need a covering. That's what repentance gives.
The revelation of sin, you and I can go through life. People
say they're sinners, and I understand that. But when you really see
that you're the chief sinner, you need a substitute. That's
what drives us to Christ. And faith enables us to believe
him. Faith enables us to look to him. Faith is the life source
wherewith we see him as all. Adam and Eve said, we're going
to sow fig leaves together. We're going to have a righteousness
before God. I'm going to do something for God. See, that's the problem.
We can't do anything for God. I'm going to fix this sin that
I've done. I can make it right. I can fix
this by living a better life. I can do this that's pleasing
unto him. And when the Lord came, what
happened? Well, those fig leaves weren't enough covering for them
to stand before the Lord. They had to hide themselves,
didn't they? And the scripture says that the Lord, the voice
of the Lord was walking about. in the garden. That's who's the
voice of the Lord. That's the word of God. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He called into them and they
said that they were naked. He said, who told you that? And
he already knew. I love the rhetorical questions of our Lord. Every
time he asked a question, he already knew the answer to it.
Every time he asked something, he already knows the answer to
it. But we see that Adam and Eve are seen as being naked. They
see themselves as thus because of sin and Our father Adam says,
well, it's the woman's fault. It's all her. You gave me this
woman. Now she did this. And Eve said, well, it's not
my fault. It's the snake's fault. Nobody
wants to take blame for it. They just knew that they had
a sin problem, and they couldn't get out of it. So they made covering
that didn't work. And now they're blaming everybody else. This
is what all religion is in the whole world. Doesn't matter.
Put a name on the religion. It doesn't matter. That's what
religion does. Men try to fix their problem.
When they stand before the Lord one day, do you not, we've read
what it says. Men are going to say, have I
not done all these wonderful works in your name? This is not, this
is not bad works that they're doing. They said we've cast out
demons. Judas cast out demons. We've
heard that before. Judas would not have been any
different than the other disciples. What's the difference? The Lord
has to say, I will. and you shall. Otherwise, if
we're saying I will, if I'm saying I will, there's no hope in that.
There's no rest in that. There's no, the fig leaves are
not good enough. What's the Lord do? Well, he
says, I will put enmity between the serpent seed and your seed
and it will bruise his head and you'll bruise it and he will
bruise your heel. That's a picture of our Lord
and what he did on the cross of Calvary and bruising the head
of our adversary, Satan, and completely putting away the sin
of his people, saving them. And then after that, what does
he do? Lord made him a covering. The
Lord took a lamb and showed them sacrifice. The Lord says, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Your
blood is not good enough. You can't apply this blood and
you can't make this blood effectual. I will and you shall be washed
in it. There's our hope. There's our
foundation. And that's what he did for his
people. That was the picture he gave
to Adam and Eve and he clothed them in this This lamb's skin. What is that a picture of? It's
the righteousness of Christ, the lamb of God. We have to be
found in his righteousness, not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but the righteousness that's through
and by him alone. The Lord said, I will and you
shall. I'm going to cover you and you're
going to be covered. I'm going to save you and you
shall be saved. I'm going to wash you whiter
than snow and you're going to be made whiter than snow. There's
rest in that, isn't there? That's a foundation I can hope
in that he's going to do this because he promised. That's what
it's sealed with. All throughout time, the Lord
has done this over and over again. I will. And you shall, even with
all the way from Genesis three, that we just heard about all
the way to Genesis six, Noah is told to build an arc. And
by faith, he does exactly what the Lord told him to do. He believed
God, Lord gave him faith to believe him. He builds the arc. And he
says, to Noah, after everything is said and done, eight souls
were spared in the wrath of God that was poured out upon the
entire earth. You know the account. It was Noah, his wife, his three
sons, and their wives. And they come off of the ark.
And what does the Lord say unto Noah? Genesis 9, I will remember
my covenant. I will. That's where it always
starts. God saying, I will. I will remember
my covenant. I will remember my covenant,
which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh. And the water shall no more become
a flood to destroy all flesh. The Lord said, I'm not going
to destroy the earth with a flood anymore. I will remember my covenant
with you. You shall be found in that covenant. That's our only hope, the covenant
of grace, the covenant of grace. Abraham, it's called an everlasting
covenant with Abraham. The Lord said, I will to Abraham.
God said, Sarah, thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed. Thou
shalt call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant
with him, an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
It's all about the Lord saying, I will, from the foundation of
the world until the very last tick of the clock. It's all about
him. I will, and you shall. Where's our hope in this? Our
hope is in the foundation of the Lord's promise, the foundation
of God that stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them
that are His. Our hope is that He put away
our sin. We believe that He did. We hope
in Him, not as a hope as, I always use these chairs as an example,
because they're halfway falling apart. I don't even know why
they're up here. We never sit in them, but anyways.
If I go over here and I say, I hope this chair will hold me
up. Well, if I look at it, that's not a good hope. This one over
here, one of the legs, it's all coming apart at the bottom, the
things that's holding it structurally together. It's like, well, that's
not a good hope, but I hope it holds me. That's not the hope
in Christ that we're talking about. We're talking about a
sure hope. We believe His Word. It is finished. That's the seal
that we have as His people. That's the promise that we rest
all of our salvation in is what thus sayeth the Lord. We don't
look to ourself any longer. We don't try to cover ourself
with fig leaves. No, we get into the ark by faith
and the Lord shuts the door and we see that when Christ died
on the cross and the fire of God's wrath fell upon His Son,
we were in Him safe and sound just like that ark. And as the
rain beat down on the ark, Nothing could happen to the contents
of that ark. Those who were in the ark were
kept perfectly safe. How do we get in the ark? Well,
the Lord has to reveal we were always in the ark. You believe
that? That's my only hope. That's my
only hope is that I was in the ark, that I was in the Lord Jesus
Christ. See, that was David's hope as
well. Do you remember? When the Lord did, after he had committed,
David committed murder, David committed adultery. Somebody
asked me recently if, they had a family member, and I won't
go into too much detail, because I'm not picking on anybody, but they
said, they said, do you believe that somebody could actually
be a Christian that's done this and done this? And I thought,
well, was David a believer whenever he committed adultery and he
committed murder? Well, the answer is yes. Yes, Lord, keep us. Don't leave us to ourself, or
we'll do the same thing. What was David's hope? Well,
after Nathan came and told him, you are the man, for the sake
of time, I'm not gonna give the analogy, we know it. David, you're
the man, you're the one that did all these things. But he
doesn't stop there, he tells him these words. The Lord hath
put away thy sins, thou shalt not die. And what was David's
hope that he had made enough sacrifice under the Lord for
the Lord to be pleased? No. Matter of fact, in Psalm
51, he says, uh, sacrifice and, uh, burn offerings thou wouldest
not. Thou wouldest not. But the Lord looks for a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. What does that mean? That means
he's given repentance and faith. Repentance and faith that looks
to him alone. David's hope was that the Lord
said, I will put away your sin. And when the time came for judgment
to be announced on David, when the time came for judgment, David
deserved to die just as you and I deserve to die. He's not guilty
of anything we're not guilty of in our heart all the time,
is he? It's true. Our heart's deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. David's hope when judgment came was these
words, the Lord hath put away your sin. You shall not die.
There's rest in that. The Lord did it. The Lord said,
I will put away your sin, David, and you shall not die. That's
salvation. That's what the Lord did. The
Lord did that. That's the only difference. He
done it. He sealed it with his promise. His foundation is sure.
All the sin that was laid upon his darling son was was paid
in full by his precious blood. Every single one of them. There's
not one thing left to do that he looks to you and I for everything
God required he provided in his son for us. This is his foundation. This is his seal. He became the
substitute of his people on the cross of Calvary, the sinner
substitute. He owned his people sin in his
body. The Lord made him sin for us who knew no sin. He made us
the righteousness of God in him. Is that your hope? Yes, my only
hope. That's the only foundation I
can stand on. And it's all by his word. He made his people the righteousness
of God. When the father laid the iniquity of us all upon his
darling son, when his soul was made an offering for sin, God
was satisfied with that sacrifice. Is the Lord satisfied with you?
Is the Lord satisfied with me? Not unless I'm in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If he's looking at me at this flesh, I have no hope
of eternal life. But if he's looking in the perfect
sacrifice of his darling son and putting away the sin of his
people on my behalf and on your behalf, then we are sealed into
the day of redemption. We are sealed until the glory
that he has already given us will be revealed in us. When
we shall see him, we'll be made just like him. That's the glory
that he's given us. No matter what happens, brethren, nevertheless, That's what that
means. No matter what, the foundation
of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Because of what he
accomplished, according to his word, the scripture says, his
people will be made willing in the day of his power. What does
he mean depart from iniquity? Iniquity is trying to fix your
sin. That's plain and simple. Iniquity is what we try to do
to fix our sin problem. Lord's people don't try to fix
their sin problem anymore, do we? No. No, we departed from
that. We're not looking to the fig
leaves anymore, are we? No, we need the righteousness of Christ.
If we don't have that, we know we have nothing. We know we have
nothing. When he says depart from iniquity,
that's what he's saying. Look to Christ. Everyone that
nameth his name, that means everyone that believeth on the Lord Jesus
Christ, hath departed from iniquity. This is rest. He's given his people rest. We
don't approach him hoping to seal the deal. I wrote, This
thought came to me while I was studying. Men preach Christ as
if it's a promotional offer. If you act right now, you can
have everlasting life. But wait, there's more. You can
have a good life too in this life. You can have health, wealth
and prosperity. You ever heard that before? It's like he's an
infomercial or something. Ain't that silly? That's not
the message that the Lord says. The Lord says it is finished.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This isn't a promotional offer.
Salvation is not an offer at all between you and the Lord
or me and the Lord. Salvation was offered one time
when Christ bowed his head on Calvary's cross unto his father. Christ offered himself and the
Lord said, satisfied. And everyone that's in him, every
single sinner that was placed in the Lord Jesus Christ has
now been declared as perfectly righteous before God's law, before
God's justice, before God's holiness. been made just as holy as the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. Boy, there's hope in that, isn't
there? Christ Jesus, the Lord and Savior.
He's our seal. He's our seal. His people are
sealed by him and his word alone, his doing alone. He's the chief
cornerstone that we hope in, that we rest in, that we believe
on us all as all our hope. I use this analogy, I think,
on a Wednesday night. And if I didn't and you've heard it,
just forgive me. But recently, regarding sealing, we were canning.
And I'm going to be as brief as I can. But I'm not an amateur
at canning. I don't know what's below an
amateur. A beginner? I don't know. My wife, she'd done quite
a bit of it back in Tennessee with her grandparents and things.
I don't know what I'm doing. And one of the little tabs on the
top, it wouldn't It was still clicking whenever I was going
to it and trying to get it to, uh, and it, uh, wouldn't stay
down. And so I kept clicking and my
wife notices I'm doing this. She said, don't touch it. And
I said, why? She said, if you touch it, it won't seal. And,
uh, it was, she was very boisterous in her words. I made her upset.
I'm like, well, it's just one can of tomatoes. I think it'll
be okay. But no, all the work that she put in, whatever. I
definitely didn't say that cause I didn't want to undermine her
effort. Guess which can didn't seal. The one I touched, the
one I touched, I ruined it. Why? Because I touched it. The
seal of the Lord is by his doing. Don't touch it. lay a hand to
it. When Uzzah is a good example
of this, they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel
to sacrifice to the Lord. They had good intentions, propped
it up on a cart. That wasn't good. The Lord told
them you're supposed to carry it with staves and it's supposed to be
the Levites. They didn't listen to that. They propped it up on a cart.
That's what men do. We've got to help God out. We've got to
prop Him up. And as the cart began to wobble a bit, Uzzah
thought it was going to fall. And he says, I've got to help
this. I've got to help God. I've got to put my hand to it
to stabilize it. And what does God say? You touch it, you die. And what happened? He touched
it. And what happened to him? He died. See, touching it, you
can't defile God. That's the news. But if we are
found with sin, the penalty is death. There is no mercy in wrath
unless we're found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless we are found
in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's where all the mercy of God lies.
That's where all the grace of God lies. That's where all the
hope and peace of God lies is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
got to be in him. Don't touch it. Don't lay your
hand to it. Don't think that it's a work
you have to do, a prayer you have to pray. Look to Christ alone. He is the seal of his people. He is the seal of his people.
We don't add one thing to it or take away from it. He gets
all the glory. It is the Lord that has sealed his people. It's his foundation. It's his
work. It's sealed with his promise. I will and you shall. I could
have named this probably three different things, but I chose
the name of the seal. This is his seal. This is what