We're going to be in Ezekiel
chapter 7 tonight, but on Sunday we'll probably be in Ezekiel
chapter 1, so we just go forward and backwards and that'll be
okay. But Ezekiel is around the 6th century BC when he was writing
this, and it was just after Jeremiah. He's also in the 6th century.
Prior to them, around the 7th or 8th century, was Isaiah. And
they all had the same issue. They all had the same people
to speak to, the same thing, the same message to declare.
It was the same captivity they were dealing with. Isaiah saw
the Assyrians come in and then also we see the prophecies there
as well as Jeremiah and even into Ezekiel of the captivity
of Babylon. So they're dealing with the captivity
of Israel because of their unbelief. It was the wrath of God that
was being given to them because of their unbelief. Ezekiel's
called to preach the same message that all these other men were
called to preach. And Ezekiel's call to this message, his call,
his charge to declare this message is the same for every believer.
The Lord calls his people one way, he reveals Christ to them.
He reveals that they are the sinner, he reveals that they
need a savior, and then he reveals Christ, doesn't he? And that's
exactly what he does to Ezekiel. God's message doesn't change.
I am thankful for that, that it's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. From the very beginning of time,
God's message has not changed. We need a substitute. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. We need
a Savior, and Jesus Christ is that Savior for his people. Now,
in the beginning of Ezekiel, he sees the spirit distending
from the north, it says, and he sees four creatures are revealed,
and each of them had four faces. And on Sunday, Lord willing,
I hope to look at that picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
not gonna spend any time on it right now, but Lord willing,
Sunday, we'll look at that. After he sees these creatures, he says
these words, this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory
of the Lord. Who else could he have seen then?
If it was the likeness of the glory of the Lord, it had to
be the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't it? And he says, when I saw it,
I fell upon my face and I heard a voice of one that spake. And the voice spoke unto Ezekiel
and he says, stand up. I will speak. I have something
to tell you, something to declare unto you. Now, the only way that
you and I can stand in the Lord's presence is to be standing in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we stand, isn't it?
On this solid rock, that's the only hope that we have is that
we would be able to stand upon and in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thankfully, we're made to stand at his command. This is how he
does it. He says, stand, and we get up. And that's the glorious news
of our Lord's sovereignty. He's sovereign in all things.
And when he says, stand up, we stand up. The only way we can
be found standing is if we're in Christ. And the only way we
can be in Christ is that the Lord has placed us there. Now,
here we are after the Lord speaks to Ezekiel all the way up to
chapter seven, he's still speaking to Ezekiel and he's telling you
many things he's going to do, many things he's going to see,
many things that's going to come to pass. And for the sake of
time, I'm not going to mention any of them. I'm just going to
focus on chapter seven and look in verse one with me. Moreover,
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also thou son of
man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel. An end,
the end, is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the
end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and
will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense
upon thee all thine abominations. And mine eyes shall not spare
thee, Neither will I have pity, but I will recompense thy ways
upon thee, and thine abomination shall be in the midst of thee,
and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God,
an evil, an only evil, behold, is come, and end, an end is come,
the end is come. It watches for thee. Behold,
it is come. There is not good news in that
unless unless when the end comes, we are found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's telling them, I'm going to recompense your, recompense
thy ways upon thee and thine abominations. He's calling them
disgusting. Their ways are disgusting unto
him. And because of this, his wrath is upon him and here is
their end. He's saying, this is the end of this city. This
is the end, all four corners, everything's going to be destroyed
under my wrath. This is the message that Ezekiel had. Here we see
our end outside of Christ, don't we? And that is our greatest
fear. Did you know the world cannot
fear being outside of Christ because they don't know Christ?
Only the believer sits and worries, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? Isn't that what the disciples
said to the Lord? One of you is going to betray me. And every one of
them pointed to their self. They didn't say, well, we know
it's Judas. We've been watching him for a while. He's been acting
a little funny. He smells different. He's just, he's not like us.
No, isn't it I? Is it not the same as us? If
the Lord was to say your end is here and one of us are going
to be found outside of Christ, we'll all point to ourself, won't
we? We'll say, Lord, is it I? I know it should be, but please
have mercy upon me. That's that's what the believer
cries for. That's what the heart that the
Lord has given his people. Cries for mercy, don't it? So I've titled this message The
End. The End. We get so wrapped up in the cares
of life, so prone to wonder that we forget how frail we are. We read that in Psalm, let's
turn back there again, Psalm 39. We get so caught up in everything
around us and even don't realize that we're forgetting to remember
and we must be reminded. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord reminds us in mercy? He brings us low for one reason,
to pick us up. He causes us to sink for a brief
moment to save us over and over. He allows the storm of our, he
knows exactly what storm to allow the devil to throw in front of
us. First of all, he's the first cause of it. And whatever that
storm is, he knows that we're going to look at it when it comes
our way. And as soon as we look at it and we begin to sink, what
do we say? Lord, save me. Is it not mercy? He reaches down
every single time over and over and over and picks us up. And
where does he put us? Puts us back on the rock, doesn't
he? He puts us back on the foundation that we've been standing on in
Christ the whole time, but could not see it. David knew something
about this. In Psalm 39, verse four says,
Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my day. What
it is that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made
my days as an hand breath, and my age is nothing before thee.
Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Make me to know mine end." This
was David's petition before the Lord. This was David's request,
his need. Lord, make me to know mine end,
not to know the time of death, not to know how I'm going to
die. That wasn't what he was asking.
He wanted to know, will my end be as Jerusalem here in Ezekiel
chapter seven? Is my end going to be that end
where you're going to leave me to myself? Is that going to be
my end? Lord, make me to know, do I have any righteousness inside
of myself or is it all found in the Lord Jesus Christ? Cause
me to know my end, cause me to know I will be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Is that not why we've came here
tonight? To know, to be reminded. that the Lord successfully redeemed
his people, to cry out for mercy, to say, Lord, I know I'm a dog,
but I'm your dog. Cause it to be so. Cause the
crumbs from your table to fall to me. That's where we come.
David says, show me that it's all vanity. I've forgotten again.
I need to be reminded that it's all vanity. Every bit of it's
going to burn up with fervent heat. Cause me to see my frailty. Give me faith. Give me faith
is what David's praying for here. Give me faith and stop my unbelief.
Cause me not to look to myself, cause me to look to Christ. This
is what David's saying. It was all because David thought
too highly of himself. Now, what kind of a man would
say, Lord, show me my frailty? Think about that question. Lord,
show me how weak I am. Show me how sick I am. Show me
that I'm blind. Show me that I'm lame. Show me
how frail I am. Nobody is going to pray that
unto the Lord unless the Lord has given them faith to do so.
Lord, show me my weakness and show me Christ my strength. Show
me my frailty and show me his success in redemption. Only the
elect of God will cry out for this. Only the elect of God desire
to see the Lord high and lifted up and to see ourself as we are. Only the believer says, Lord,
show me the truth. Lord, give me the truth. Give
me Christ, lest I die. We are made to cry out. Calls
me to see the work is finished. This is our life. David is no
different than Ezekiel. What Ezekiel saw, no different
than Jeremiah. We're going to see a passage in Jeremiah, the
weeping prophet. He's praying the same thing.
Lord, show me this. Show me that we have an end,
that we're frail, that it's all vanity. Remind me of this and
cause me to see Christ. You see yourself as frail and
incapable. If we see ourself as unable,
then we see that we need a substitute. Do we see that? That's how it
works. If we see ourself as frail, incapable, unable, dead in trespasses
and in sin, that's the only individual that's gonna cry out, have mercy,
that needs a substitute. They've been made to do so by
His grace. David's saying, cause me to rest
my soul in Christ alone for my salvation. I'm distracted again. I've taken my eyes off of Christ
again. Lord, remind me of my frailty.
Remind me that I don't got this. Christ does. Show me that the
work is finished. This is what we come here for.
He says, make me to know mine end.
Now, I pray we're able to enter into this question I'm about
to ask us. As I was studying this, I tried
to really enter into it, and I pray the Lord will call us
to do so. What if today, what if you knew that today was our
last day, your last day on the face of the earth? If you knew
beyond a shadow of a doubt tomorrow, your eyes would not open in this
world, that you would die. What would you do? What would
be your thought process? My initial thought was concern
for my family. I would worry about their finances,
how I was going to take care of them, something like that.
But as the moments get closer and closer, I'm gonna have one
thing needful, aren't I? Aren't you? Lord, I'm frail. Lord, I'm dying. I need to see
Christ. That would be the need that we
would have, wouldn't it? Lord, I need to see him right
now. I need to see him right this second. I'm about to die.
I need to know. I need to know that I'm in him. I need to see him. That would
be our cry, wouldn't it? What circumstance in our lives
would matter then, truly. Now, I know that there's situations
that we have sickness and afflictions and things in life that it's
overwhelming to us. What would matter if you knew
that your last breath was coming tomorrow? If you knew that beyond
a shadow of a doubt, what would really true, what circumstance
would matter? Think about that. See, this is
an urgent message. This is the only thing that's
life giving is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only rest
that we're going to have. And this is what David is saying.
And this is what the Lord's telling Ezekiel. The end is here right
now. Here's the end. I would remind
us that our life is a vapor that appears for a little time, then
vanisheth away. A vapor. Everybody, we know what we've
seen vapors, how fast my wife will be Cooking. I'll be cooking.
I'll see a vapor. It just flickers. No, it's gone.
I mean, it's a blip and that's all we are in time. The end is
here. That's the message tonight. The
end is here. Turn your eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the only one that can give you peace. He is the only one that
can give you hope. Our life is a hand breath. I
didn't know what a hand breath was. And I don't, maybe hopefully
I'm not the only one ignorant of that. So I looked it up and
I got a picture on Google that has a hand and it says a hand
breath. I was like, well, that makes sense. I understand now. And this is,
think about the circumference of the earth and the size and
the universe and how big everything is. How much, how big is that? The hand compared to all of that?
That's what he's saying. It's insignificant. Our life
is so, and yet we need to see ourself as frail because the
left to ourself will be exalted in pride and think that we have
everything under control and we will lay our hands on it and
try to fix it. We don't realize how frail we
truly are, do we? The Lord has to show us that.
Lord, show me I'm frail. Show me that my life is a vapor
and lead me to Christ. This is what David's praying
and the message to Ezekiel is the end is here. That's why David's
praying it. David wanted to see his end. Now God's gospel, the good, did
you know the word gospel means good news? Good news. Boy, I didn't know that for a
long time. I didn't, but when I found out
it's good news, that lets me know that all these other gospels,
they're not gospels because they're not good news. This is the only
gospel that can show you that you're frail, that I'm frail,
that we're dead. I mean, dead, dead, not partially
dead with a little bit of pulse and we need to be shocked back
to life. We're dead, been dead a long time. And it's the only
gospel that'll bring a dead dog sinner back to life, isn't it?
To life in Christ. That's what it does. And this
good news gospel shows every elect, son and daughter of God,
that they are a sinner, that they are born in sin, shaped
into iniquity. We're made to see our death.
We're made to see our end. We're made to see that if left
to ourselves, we would have the same damnation declaration as
Ezekiel, where he says, I'm going to recompense. The word recompense
means give. I'm going to give you according
to your abominations. I would remind us that the word
abomination is disgusting. Disgusting. He says, everything
you're doing is disgusting. And this is what he's telling
Israel. I'm going to give you. the reward of your disgusting
deeds because of what you are. This is not good news unless
unless Christ Jesus became the center substitute for you and
I, unless Christ Jesus took those abominable deeds that we have
and put them away by his own blood. There's the good news,
isn't it? And he did that for his people. He redeemed them.
He redeemed them. We're made to see that hell Hell
would be our eternal destination. We're made to have a need. Understand
that if there was no distress, if there was no revelation of
hell, there would be no distress over our sin. And therefore we
would not pray for mercy. We would not beg for the Lord's
peace. We would not beg for grace. If there was no trial, there
would be no cry for mercy. If we didn't have trials in this
life and everything was perfectly peaceful all the time, we would
never cry out, Lord, save me in the flesh, would we? If we
were never made to see sin, we would have no need of a savior.
And if like David, unless we are made to see that we're frail,
we will never rest in his strength. We will never need a substitute. It is mercy, the trials, the
tribulations, it is mercy to see that we are frailty. And
he's strong. He is the strong man that put
the sin of his people away. Think about who came to the Lord.
Who came to the Lord? Those that had a need. Did the
strong men come to the Lord? What was their need? They were
strong. They didn't have any need whatsoever, did they? Did
the healthy come to the Lord? No, it was the sick, wasn't it?
Did the ones that had good legs that could walk just fine come
to the Lord? No, it was the lame ones, wasn't it? It was the ones
that was blind. It was the ones that were without hope, without
strength. Christ died for his people that
were without strength. That's what the scripture tells
us, doesn't it? Not the ones that were strong, but the ones
that were needy came to the Lord. Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians
1, he says, for you see your calling brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. There was only one rich ruler
recorded that came to the Lord. Only one rich ruler. Now I'm
sure there were wealthy men that came to the Lord, but we only
have an account of one rich ruler. That was his title, a rich, young
ruler. Just one came to him. Why? Because
he was given a need to. He was given a need to. If a
man has the riches and the health and the strength in this life,
unless they're shown that it's not gonna do them any good in
eternity, they will die thinking that they are good enough. But
mercy it is, the trials that the Lord gives us to show us
our frailty. to show us that we're incapable,
to show us we can't do anything that would merit salvation or
do anything. We can't really do anything most
of the time. Anyway, we try to put our hand to something and
it just, every time I do, I know it backfires in my face. It feels
like if I try to fix something, that doesn't mean we don't try.
But the first reaction that I have is probably the same reaction
that you have. And it's to try to fix it rather than saying,
Lord, Lord, I can't, I'm not fit to fix it. Lord, I need you
to do this by your means necessary. Have mercy upon me. I wish we
could pray that as soon as something troubles us, don't you? That's
what I want to do. In mercy, the Lord shows us our
end. He shows us our frailty. He shows us that it takes an
act of God to save us to call us by His mercy. And He shows
us that it's an act of God that keeps us, keeps us looking unto
Him, keeps us resting in Him, keeps bringing us back to Him
over and over. Otherwise, we would be needless.
We'd be of all men most miserable, the scripture says. Now, most
men will spend their life ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth, or they will spend their life
never caring. They don't have a need. In either
one of those, there is no hope for the believer. I can't do
in order to be saved, and I have been given a need. The Lord Jesus
Christ, he's the only one. He's the only one that satisfied
the Father, and He is the only one that will satisfy His people. He's the only one that can give
peace. He's the only one that can give grace. He's the only
one that can show us it is finished. It is by mercy that we see our
frailty, that we see that we are dust, and thus we shall return. Do you remember Paul on the road
to Damascus? His name was Saul at the time. He had letters for
persecution of the church, literally letters of death, death sentences
for God's people. What happened? He was on the
road and a bright light shone from heaven. And it knocked him
off of his horse, which is a picture of his righteousness being exalted.
And it put his face in the dirt. And the Lord said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? I love the fact that the Lord
struck him blind for three days after that. I'm sure Paul probably
didn't because of the infirmity that he had at the time. But
the only way that Saul could have seen that his name changed
to Paul is if the Lord would have struck him blind. Now, only
the believer understands what I'm saying about that. The Lord
strikes us blind to everything else but the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the message is tonight.
Here is our end. Here is our frailty. Here's our
time, it's just a vapor. Now, Lord, shut us, shut everything
else out and calls us to see Christ because we see everything
as vanity but Him. That's what he did for Paul.
And that's what he does for his people over and over. It's called
repentance, isn't it? He changes our mind. Repentance. It's his gift. This is our hope. I wish we could live like dying
men. and dying women. If we did, like
what I'm describing, if we knew that tomorrow was our last day,
if we could live like that, boy, we would be much more fervent
in our prayer and our reading and our, not for salvation in
order to please the Lord, but because of just the desire of,
Lord, I need to see your face now. I need to see your face
now. And we get so distracted though, don't we? I know I do.
It's so easy to get distracted in this world that we live in
and things of the world, Everything's so shiny to the flesh, isn't
it? It's shiny. And the flesh hates God, everything
about God, and all these shiny things around us. And Lord, remind
me I'm frailty. Lord, remind me of my end. Don't
let me lose focus of You. That it's all You I need to be
seeing. Not the things around me, not circumstance, not things,
but Lord, cause me to see that my sin has been put away. Cause
me to see Christ. Exalt Him. Cause Him to be lifted
up in our heart. remind us that we have an appointment.
We have an appointment, don't we? We have an appointed end,
the scripture says, is it appointed unto men once to die, and after
this, the judgment. Now, men would use that in religion
as trying as a scare tactic is what they would do. You better
You better keep on keepin' on. You better taste not, touch not,
handle not. You have an appointment you're
gonna keep, and the Lord said he's gonna bring every deed into account,
whether it's good or evil. That's true. They're not saying
what's wrong there. The problem is is they're not
preaching the gospel. The gospel is the deeds that
he's gonna bring forth of us is the deeds of Christ. There's
the gospel. When he brings all the deeds
into account, whether they be good or evil, he's gonna say
every single deed you've ever done is perfect. That's the good
news, isn't it? You mean everything that I've
done? Yes, everything. How can that be? Because of your
substitute, because he has put away your sin, you are not guilty
anymore. That's what he goes on to say,
Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. And unto them
that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin. unto salvation. The Lord's gonna
appear for his people. In the moment when we face, and
we don't understand anything about eternity truly, the moment
that we die, we come face to face with God. To be absent with
the body is to be present with the Lord, the scripture tells
us. That means the last breath that we draw, the last tick of
the heart, as soon as our eyes close, they're gonna open and
see him face to face. Now, two things, one of two things
are gonna happen there. Either we're gonna be made like
him in a moment of a twinkling of an eye, Or he's going to say,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Lord
calls us to think on our end. Lord calls us to be found in
Christ, because if I'm to stand there without your righteousness,
it would have been better if I had not been born. That's what
the scripture says, isn't it? When we see our end, we say,
Lord, save me. Lord, keep me. Save me and keep
me from myself. Save me from my sin. Save me
and keep me from Satan, from the world. Remind me of my frailty. Hold me in thy hand." Don't just
reach out your hand as an offer and say, okay, now you have to
do your part. I've reached out as far as I
need to. Now you're going to have to reach out the rest of
the way. No, snatch me up out of the pits of hell where I belong.
Don't leave me there in utter darkness, Lord, save me, have
mercy upon me. That's our hope. Because he left
his son, because he left his son on the cross bearing our
sin, and because he turned his back upon his son, he will never
leave us, he will never forsake us. Scripture says he would not
let his holy one see corruption. Whenever it was finished, after
the three days, the father resurrected his son and all those that were
in him when he died. When he died, we're presented
perfectly righteous to the Father. That's the good news. This is what we cry for. Give
us Christ. We're like the disciples, aren't
we? Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
I believe. We believe, don't we? But oh,
we're so full of unbelief. Lord, help thou mine unbelief.
We have a new man, we have an old man, and they hate each other.
I will deny you if you leave me to myself. Make me to know
my end. Cause me to see my frailty. Shut
me up to Christ, his strength. This is how he reveals Christ,
our strength. It's through affliction, through
tribulation, but he never leaves the believer there. He shuts
us up to Christ then. He sends forth His saving arm
and rescues His people. In the dark despair that we have
in this world, this was all designed in order for us to see the frailty
that we are, to make us flee unto Christ. That's what it's
designed for. Even Paul had a thorn in the
flesh, didn't he? Now, many scholars and men, they
say that the thorn in the flesh was this and the thorn of the
flesh was that. No matter what the thorn in the flesh was, I
guarantee you, he was unbelief because he cried out unto the
Lord three times. If he would have been full of faith in that
moment, he wouldn't even have prayed. He just said, Lord, I
trust you. It's fine. But in his moment
of needing the Lord's saving hand of grace and mercy, he says,
Lord, remove this from me. I can't bear it. What the Lord
telling? My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. There it is. That's
the message tonight, isn't it? My strength is made perfect in
your frailty. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Whenever you're weak, see, I'm
strong. That's the only time that we'll see that the Lord
is strong is whenever he reveals, oh, how weak we are, how prone
to wonder we are, how full of unbelief we are. Lord, I need
your faith. I can't produce any faith. Lord, I need your strength.
I have no strength. Lord, I'm blind. I need you to
cause me to see. This is how he's designed it,
by his grace. Paul goes on to say something
that you can only say by the grace of the Lord, only because
of faith. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Can you glory in
your infirmities only if you're looking to Christ, only if you're
looking to His strength, only if you're resting in His power?
That's the only way. The good news of the gospel is
we are kept by the power of God, not our own power. He said, all
glory and affirmity is because of the power of God. I see his
power. I see his strength. And that's
how I'm kept by the power of God through faith under salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time. Christ did the saving. Christ did the calling. Spirit
does the calling in time. And Christ does all the keeping,
don't he? All the keeping. Brethren, I would like to remind
us tonight that the blood still satisfies the Father. The blood
still satisfies the Father. Your sin has been put away forever. There is now, therefore, no condemnation. When is it not now? It's always
now, isn't it? There is still a book that has
the name of every single elected child of God that Christ resumed.
And Christ loosed the seals of that book and successfully put
away their sin. He saved his people. It is still
finished. That doesn't change because of
what you and I go through or what you and I do. Isn't that
good news? I can't mess it up. I rest in that, because if I
could, I would. If you could, you would. That's how we are,
isn't it? But it is finished. It is eternally,
everlastingly finished for the Lord's people. He reigneth. He
reigneth. Because of this, we have an expected
end, an expected end. Turn with me to Jeremiah 29. How can we expect peace in our
end? How can we have peace at our
end? He tells us in Jeremiah 29 in
verse 11. This is what he thinks of his
people. He tells us what he thinks of his people. For I know the
thoughts, Jeremiah 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you. saith the Lord, thoughts of peace
and not evil, to give you an expected end." What is he saying? He's telling us the only thing
that I think when I look at you is peace, because wrath has been
satisfied. You can expect that when you
die because of Christ. We can expect that, Brother Al,
when we die because what Christ did. We can expect that. Why? God said it. Only thing
I think about when I look at you is peace. He says in verse 12, then shall
you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will
hearken unto you and you shall seek me and you shall find me
when you search for me with your whole heart. How can we have
peace? How can we expect peace? Because
he sees Christ and we seek him with our whole heart. You know
why? Because he's given us the heart of Christ. that only looks
unto him through faith. That's what he's done. Our new
man can only look to Christ. Our new man always looks to Christ. Our new man cannot not believe. It must believe because the faith
of Christ cannot fail. This is good news to sinners. We cry, cause us, cause us to
seek first the kingdom of God. Cause us to look unto you with
all of our heart. Search me and remove any unclean
thing. Cause me to have no hope. Cause
me to see that I'm frailty. Cause me to have no confidence
in this flesh whatsoever. Cause me to rest my eternal salvation
on the Lord Jesus Christ only. This is what we pray, isn't it? Paul said it, for I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. No matter what
sufferings we have in the present time, It cannot be compared to
the glory that will be revealed in you. It's already in you.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our hope. Christ in us,
the hope of glory, the scripture says. What mercy it is to show
us our end without Christ and then show us our end with Christ.
This is where this started, this message. We saw our end in Ezekiel
without Christ. Now we saw our end in Jeremiah
with Christ. That he only thinks peace. He
only thinks peace for his people. Now in closing, turn with me
to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five and verse
one. He gives his people faith to
believe him. He gives his people peace that
no matter what circumstance we face, We can still remember three
words, it is finished. It is finished. Romans 5 verse
1, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Boy, that is good news, isn't
it? The justification that the Lord gave to his people has caused
peace, peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. by whom
also we have access by faith unto the grace whereon we stand."
So now we have peace, we have faith, we have grace. And rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. Now we have hope also, don't
we? We have peace, we have faith, we have grace, we have hope.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing
that the tribulation That tribulation worketh patience, and patience
experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not a shame,
because the love of God is yet abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. Now we're just told that the
Holy Ghost is given unto us as well. For when we were yet without
strength, there it is, for when we were in frailty, When we had
no hope, we were without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Do you see yourself without strength?
Do you see yourself as ungodly? I have good news. Christ died
for the ungodly, for those without strength. For scarcely for a
righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some
would even dare to die. But God commended his love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." What
are you looking to? Or are we looking to what Christ
accomplished? He shows us that we're frail,
shows us that we're without strength, shows us that we're ungodly.
He also shows us that we've been justified, that we've been given
faith to look to Christ. He's given us peace of God. He's
given us the grace of God. He's given us the hope of God.
He's given all by the blood of Christ, all by his finished work.
He's given us his spirit. And he's given us his love in
Jesus Christ. We will escape the wrath of God. We'll be saved from the wrath
of God because Christ Jesus took it for his people. You know what that means? Our
end will be no wrath. Our end will be peace. Now, men
say peace, peace, when there is no peace, don't they? Men
make covenants with death and think that everything's okay,
but we're talking the way God sees things. The way God sees
things for his people, there is real peace because of what
he did. And our hope is that the glory
of Christ will be revealed in us, that when we shall see him,
we shall be made like him, for we shall see him as he is. And because of this, for a brief
moment, when we hear the gospel, we're able to glory in tribulation,
aren't we? Because no matter what we're
facing, it seems like all the things around us slowly fade
dimly, and we see the light of his person, his face shining
through. We're able to rest for a brief moment, and we can glory
saying, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord, I am a dog. And
all these circumstances are probably, not probably, it's most of the
time our fault, isn't it? Lord, save me. Lord, cause me
to see thy face. Make me to know my unexpected
end. Make me to know my expected end and cause it to be that I
see and I am pleased with Christ just as you are, just