Tonight, I want us to look at
five faithful sayings throughout the scripture. There's five times
that that term is used, faithful sayings. If you want to look at the first
one, it's found in 1 Timothy 1, if you'd like to be turning
there. I want us to know what is a faithful
saying. What does that mean? Many men will say that what they
believe in is faithful or what they believe in is true. I want
us to leave here tonight knowing what the Lord says is a faithful
saying. The five faithful sayings of
the scripture. The first one is found in First
Timothy chapter one. In verse 15. This is a faithful saying. And worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. How be it for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. The first faithful saying
is that Christ Jesus saves sinners. I intentionally picked that song
for that very reason. Christ receiveth sinful men.
Is that your hope tonight? Is that Christ saves sinners? It is if you're the chief of
sinners as Paul was made to be. He was on the road to Damascus
about to deliver execution letters to the Lord's church. He was
a man of power. He persecuted the church beyond
measure, the scripture says, and he was on his way to deliver
letters of execution. And what happened? Well, what
happened to him is the same hope that it would happen to us as
God knocked him off of his high horse. A great light shone from
heaven, knocked him in the dirt, put his face in the dirt, caused
him to reverence and acknowledge who was speaking to him. And
he said, Lord, Lord, He had to acknowledge who was
speaking to him. He had to acknowledge what he was in that. And the
Lord struck him blind, didn't he? And he said, I'm Jesus whom
thou persecute us. That's what he told him. I'm
the one that you're fixing to deliver those execution letters
for. The Stephen, whenever Stephen was dying, Saul of Tarshish hailed
the coat. That's Paul. He held the coat
of Stephen. And he got to hear the gospel
preached through Stephen. And he said, it's hard for you
to kick against the pricks, isn't it Saul? It's hard. What did
he mean by that? Well, the first time Paul heard
what Stephen had to say, it stripped him of all of his righteousness
if he was to believe that. But yet the Lord is faithful
in pricking the heart of his people time and time again, until
finally we find ourself as Saul, flat on our face before God saying,
Lord, what would you have me do? Lord, and acknowledging who
he is, acknowledging what we are. This is a faithful saying. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now, if you're not the
chief of sinners, I have no hope for you tonight. But if the Lord's
made you the chief of sinner, I have great hope. Christ Jesus
came into the world for one purpose, to honor his father in the covenant
of grace to save sinners. We could be like most men when
we hear this, the same as probably Saul thought when he first heard.
Paul thought that I'm not a sinner anymore. I used to be. Now I'm
doing this right. I'm doing this. I'm not doing
what sinners do anymore. I have family members that truly
believe that. They don't believe that they're sinners. We're saints
now, they say. I'm a saint. I'm not a sinner anymore. Brethren,
I'm worse as a sinner now than when I first believed. And it's
the same as Paul's confession. As first he said, I am the least
of these of the brethren. That's the first acknowledgement
as he was as his position as a believer. I'm the least of
the brethren. The second time he confesses, he said, I am not
worthy to be called as one of the brethren. And the last time
is here in Timothy. And what does he call himself?
The chief of sinners. That's the third thing that he
acknowledged. So first he didn't deserve to be, he was unworthy
as the least. And the second thing was, is
he was unworthy to even be called one. And the last thing was,
is he was the chief of sinners. We see that the digression there,
it's the going back, isn't it? It's seeing more of Christ and
seeing less of ourself. Only Christ will receive sinners.
He doesn't receive those who believe they're righteous. If
you see yourself as a saint, there's 100% chance that you're
not. You're not a saint. If you look
at yourself and examine yourself as what you are based upon your
own righteousness, and you say, I'm good enough to be accepted
before God, there is 100% chance. We are not a saint if that's
what we think. The Lord saves sinners. That's
what we come here every time to hear, isn't it? The Lord saves
sinners. This is a faithful saying. We come here to hear faithful
sayings of the Lord, don't we? This is why we come together.
Now, a faithful saying takes faith to believe. It takes faith
to believe a faithful saying, the faithful sayings of the Lord.
Just because we read it in the scripture, unless the Lord gives
us faith to believe it, that doesn't change it for us. We
have to be made to believe it, doesn't we? It's not a choice
that we make. The Lord gives us the faith to
believe His faithful sayings and cleave to them. Faithful
means full of faith, full of faith. That's literally what
it means. It's what the Lord gives to His people. It's what
we can trust in. It's what we can believe on.
It's what's been revealed to us. It's what we hope in. We
don't preach hope as other men preach hope, where they say,
well, I hope this chair will hold me up when I sit in it.
And they might make a mathematical equation saying, well, so-and-so
built the chair, so the chair is pretty good. I have faith
that this chair will hold me up. We're not talking about physical hope
and physical faith. We're talking about our eternal
destiny, if you will, our eternal life, our eternal hope. And it's
in something steadfast and sure. It's something that comes to
us in the form of faithful sayings. Christ Jesus saves sinners. That
gives me hope. I have hope because I see myself
as a sinner and you see yourself as a sinner. You see yourself
as the chief, just as all of us do. As the Lord calls us,
we don't look at each other saying, well, I'm not as bad as he is.
I'm not as bad as she is. We see ourself as the chief.
And the good news is, This anchor of the soul that we have is both
sure and steadfast because it's not something that we have merited
or come to the knowledge of on our own. If a man can talk us
into it, another man can talk us out of it. We've been fully
persuaded that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous.
We've been fully persuaded to not confess that we have any
righteousness. We've been fully persuaded to confess Christ is
all. We are confident in him and his
faithful sayings. Now look, prior to this, in verse
12, Paul tells Timothy, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath
enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, an
injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ. See, it's all by grace, isn't
it? Paul acknowledged not only what he had done, but as a persecutor
of the church, can you imagine the guilt that he would have
had to feel for literally, literally given the execution papers, literally
given the order? I mean, he murdered him, he killed
him himself. I mean, that's just how it was. Can you imagine what,
how, now that he's seen the truth, he's given his, he's, why did
he, why did he now say, well, this is what I used to be. This
is what I did. But then turn around and say,
I'm the chief of sinners. It wasn't because of what he did.
It was because of what he was right then. Do we see that? He's
confessing it's all by grace. I've not gotten better since
then. I've renounced that because of repentance and the Lord's
given me faith to believe him. And that's my only hope that
he saved sinners. That's my only hope. It's him
choosing to come. It's him that chose to save his
people. That's what he's telling him.
David had the same experience. He tells us in Psalm 86, for
lo, for thou Lord are good and ready to forgive. I love the
thought that the Lord is ready to forgive right now. And right
now, and right now he's ready to forgive his people right now.
He's ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon him. Now see, sinners are the only ones that call upon
him because they're the only ones that need saving. Sinners call upon him, don't
they? We're made to. We have to. He's the only one
that can save us. Men in religion say, well, call
upon the Lord. But what they're saying is, is
you need to do your part. You need to exercise what you
have and do this or do that. When we call upon the Lord out
of the depths of the heart, We can relate to what Jonah was
saying is out of the belly of hell hath I cried. We see ourself
as deservant of hell. It's not a, it is a do or die
situation. It is a necessity to cry out.
We have to run to him. That's what he does for his people
in making us sinners. We have to run to him and we
confess him. Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. I quote this pretty often to us,
but I wanted to show us tonight. because there's a few other verses
that I don't quote. Romans 10 9, this is the qualification
for salvation, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus. That seems pretty simple, doesn't it? That thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. But what is the implication here?
It's whom we're confessing. We're confessing that Christ
is God and that we are the sinner. He is Lord, just as Saul confessed,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now I'm reminded that out of
the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So to confess
means that something's already happened on the inside. Who did
that something on the inside? The Lord did. Because he's given
faith in the heart, the confession of the Lord Jesus comes out.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture
saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same
Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you believe
that? You believe that whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You better believe
it because the scripture tells us clearly. That's our hope,
isn't it? Whosoever shall call. Aren't you glad it doesn't say
in order to call, you have to be qualified and you have to
do this first. It says whosoever shall call. Christ was so clear
in the whosoever's though, wasn't he? He told some, he said, you
will not come to me. You are not a whosoever. Understand
a whosoever is the chief of sinners. A whosoever is one that the Lord
hath made to see they have a need. We spoke on being poor and needy
Sunday, didn't we? We've been made poor and needy.
We have to have Christ. And that's exactly what he's
saying here. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. So you can tell everybody that we preach a whosoever
will salvation. We do. But we know that everybody
won't. Why? Because Christ Jesus only
gives the faith to call upon him to his people. Let's read
on. It says here in verse 14. Now
the whosoevers, if everybody loves to stop right there, they
do. That's all in religion. That's where everybody stops.
Let's read on in 14. How then shall they call on him in whom
they've not believed? Whom they've not believed. Now
that doesn't, he goes on to say whom they not heard. We're going
to read it in a second, but whom they've not believed. Well, the
disciples made the confession unto the Lord. Lord, we believe
help our unbelief. Well, that was an implication
of what had been done on the inside. They realized that they
were full of unbelief and that it was his faith that gave them
the ability to even cry out to begin with. So how should we
call upon him and whom we not believe is a confession. Lord,
if I'm going to believe, You're going to have to be the one that
causes me to believe. And he says, and how shall they
believe in him and flesh? Or is this a hearing of
the ear on the inward parts? It's certainly the inward parts,
isn't it? How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent? As I was
praying about traveling up here and and moving up here to be
with you, I said, Lord, The only way is you'll have to go with
me. There's no other way. And of
course, I wasn't bargaining with the Lord or trying to contend
with him in any way, but that's the same thing Moses said. Moses
said all these things unto the Lord. Lord, you got the wrong
guy is what Moses told him. And the Lord said, I will be
with you, Moses. Why? Because Moses was sent.
Now our hope is that I was sent here to be with you. And the
Lord opened up the doors and here we are. My hope is that
the Lord keeps us. And we should never take for
granted what we have, because it could be lost if the Lord
doesn't keep us. We come as mercy beggars here,
and may the Lord keep us from taking it for granted, taking
advantage of it. May we come as mercy begging
sinners, asking Lord, cause us to worship you one more time.
I need it more today than I need it yesterday. Is that not your
confession as well? I need the manna today more than I needed
it yesterday. And I'll need it again tomorrow more than I needed
it today. Why? Because I'm a sinner. Because I'm the chief of sinners.
That's why. How shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall
they preach except they be sent? It is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things, but they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word. The Lord sends his gospel preacher
to declare just that, the word of God, the person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the word,
the word was with God and the word was God, as we heard Sunday.
We are sent to declare Jesus Christ. And that is the gospel
preacher's responsibility over and over again. And you know
what sinners want to hear? The gospel of the Lord Jesus
over and over. Why? Because it's a faithful
saying. It's the only thing faithful
in this world is the Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious gospel.
That's all we have. That's all we need, isn't it?
That's all we want as the Lord's people. That's all. Scripture says in Ephesians 3.20,
now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think. according to the power that worketh
in us. I remember seeing recently a football player and he had
that exact verse stenciled underneath his eye to play the game. And
I understand the logic behind that because the man wanted to
win the game. It was a big game for his team.
And I understand that we could take this from a humanitarian
situation. We can say, okay, whatever my
hand finds to do, I want to do it with all my might. And I'm
asking the Lord to bless my efforts. We certainly, when we go to work,
we don't want to fall flat on our face and we cry out for mercy,
but that's not what he's talking about here. He says he's able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. What
do we ask for? Forgiveness. He has exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think. We ask for grace.
He has grace that is plenteous. We're asking for mercy, aren't
we? We're asking for his spirit. We're asking for his deliverance.
Lord, save me, the sinner. Have mercy upon me, the sinner.
And he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you
ask or think. What do we think on? Our hope
is that we think on heavenly things, that he causes us to
say, he says, seek you my face and causes us to turn to him.
And he said, my God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. What is your need? Well, if you've
been made the chief of sinners, Christ is your need. He shall
supply your need because you've been made a sinner. What is the
need? Christ Jesus is our need to be found in him, having his
righteousness, not our own righteousness. Men believe that they're saved
from their sin. And after they get saved from their sins, that
they live a better life that's not as sinful. We're so full
of sin, aren't we? Everything that we do is full
of sin. I need to be safe from myself. I need to be safe from
my sin, certainly, but I need to be safe from my iniquity,
my transgression, my trespass. I need to be safe from all the
thoughts that I have, the things that I do. I need to be safe
from the things that I speak. I need to be safe from all of
it. Why? because I'm a sinner. Lord hath made me to be a sinner.
And the good news is, this is a faithful saying, worthy of
all expectation. You accept this if you're his
people, you do. And I do too. If we're his people,
we accept this because it's acceptable unto us. It's palatable unto
us. It's sweet to our taste. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now, the second faithful saying
is found In 1 Timothy 4, it's just a few pages over from our
text. Well, I guess each of these are gonna be my text, but that's
okay. 1 Timothy 4. Look with me at verse 6. If thou
put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be
a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. But refuse
profane and old wives' fables and exercise thyself rather unto
godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. The second faithful saying that
we have is found in having a promise of the life that now is and that
which is to come. It's the promise that Christ
made unto his father to redeem his people. And it's him giving
his elect sinners eternal life. It's the promise he made and
that which he gave of eternal life to his people. That's the
second faithful saying. Now he tells us what a good minister
is, what a good minister does. In verse number six, if thou
put the brethren in remembrance of these things, if thou put
the brethren in remembrance of these things, everything that
he's telling him, the things that we just heard two chapters
before, if you tell them the truth, Timothy, is that not what
he told him? He said, preach the word, preach Christ, be instant
in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. For the time will come, men will
endure sound doctrine, but heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears. We're in that time, aren't we?
Men would rather have that which tickles their ears than to hear
the good news of the gospel. He's telling Timothy, if you're
gonna be a good minister, if you are a good minister, you
will do this. What does that mean? If I'm the
Lord's messenger, I'm going to declare the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. Is that not what they say in
the court of law where they put their hand on the Bible They swear on men. Did you know there's not a man
alive that's ever spoke the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth, unless he's confessing Christ is all. That's the truth,
isn't it? That's the only truth that we
have. That's the only thing that we hope in is that he's given
us life here, abundant life in him and in the world to come
life eternal. That's our hope. That's our hope. This is what Paul's telling Timothy.
A good minister reminds the Lord's people of the gospel and puts
them in remembrance. I think it was either last Wednesday
or the Wednesday before we preached on remember and repent. This
is what the Lord is declaring to us over and over again. Remember
what he's done for you. Remember that he put away the
sin of his people. Remember that he is all and he's
given eternal life. We can't fathom what eternal
life is because we're mortal. We're mortal in this life. We
can't think an eternal thought. And yet the new man will live
forever. We'll be made in his likeness when we see him as he
is. That's our hope. Remind them of this. That's what
he talks about when he says that godly exercise profiteth. That word means, well, exercise
can be in the body and it can be in the mind, right? Either
one. He tells us the bodily exercise profiteth little or doesn't profit
for a long time. I remember being in religion and men saying, well,
it's a good thing it says it profiteth little because if it
said profit of nothing, I would never exercise. I thought that
was kind of comical because men take everything literal, don't
they? What is he saying about godly exercise though? Because
that's what interests me. I don't want to get caught up
in what we need to do physically. I need to know what he done for me because
I need to know if he's demanding godly exercise, what does that
mean? Think on Christ. That's godly exercise. Remember
Christ has put away your sin. Worship him, bow before him. That's godly exercise. That's
what it is. We need to remember because we're
often, we need to be reminded because we so often forget. We
need to be reminded of that he's given us a promise in this life.
I will never leave you nor forsake you. And he's given us a promise
in the life to come. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. Isn't that glorious? It's the same promise. The promise
doesn't change because of where you are or where I'm at. My position,
David said, if I descend to the lowest parts of hell, thou art
with me. Think about that. My position
in this life doesn't determine my standing with God because
I am in Christ Jesus. Your position in this life doesn't
determine your standing with God because you're in Christ
Jesus. Is that your hope? That's my hope. No matter where we go, he will never
leave us nor forsake us. Why? Because our life is hid
in Christ right now and in the life to come. Scripture tells us clearly, remember
that you're kept. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. We're kept by him. He's the one
that keeps us, not we ourselves. So first, faithful saying is
that Christ saves sinners. The second faithful saying is
that Christ promised and gave his elect sinners eternal life
in him. Now the third faithful saying
tells us how he did it. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Look with me in verse 11. It is a faithful saying. For
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Of these
things, put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord
that they strive not about words, to no profit, but to this averting
of the hearers." How did the Lord save his sinners? How did
he give them eternal life? We died in him when he died.
When he was alive, we were alive in him. When he tasted death
for his people, we were put into him. And when he was resurrected,
we were resurrected in him. That's exactly what he's talking
about here. Whenever he said, if we be dead with him, we shall
also live with him. That's our hope. That when he
died, I died. If that's not the case, I still
have to taste death. I still have to taste death.
Paul said it this way. Oh, death, where is thy sting?
Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Why? Because Christ Jesus tasted
death for his people. Christ Jesus died for his people
and death could not hold him. When he died, we died in him.
This is how he did it. Christ came to honor his covenant
with the father and he redeemed his elect, his bride. And he gives them eternal life.
It wasn't by our will, was it? It wasn't a decision we made
before time ever began. It was the will of the father
of his own will begat he us. By his own death, he has brought
life and immortality to light to us now through the gospel. By his resurrection, he brought
us back to his father, is perfect, and he hath put away the sin
of his people. Now in verse 12, I want us to notice something
because it's a cause and effect. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. That's our hope, that when he suffered and he died,
we suffered and died in him, and that we will reign with him.
Now he says, if we deny him, he also will deny us. Does that concern you at all?
Because I know that if left to myself, I would deny him. Understand
something, brethren. Peter, when he denied the Lord,
he didn't deny who God was. He didn't deny who Christ is. He just denied his affiliation
out of fear. Peter's faith did not fail because
Christ Jesus prayed for Peter. I may have said this to us before,
and I'll probably hope I get to say it 100 more times as long
as I live. The reason that Peter did not fail his faith, the reason
that he did not deny the Lord in his heart in that he denied
who he was as God was because the faith of Christ was given
to him and he could not deny who Christ was. Is that your
hope? Is that when the Lord prayed,
he said, he told Peter, Peter, I've prayed for you that your
faith failed not. Is that what you hope he prayed
for you? If you're the chief of sinner, it is. That's our
hope, isn't it? that whenever the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed, he prayed for me, that he said, Father, forgive
them, forgive him. He know not what he does, that
whenever he died, we died in him. That's our hope, isn't it?
We cannot deny him because his faith cannot fail. If we're in
him and we deny him, his faith fails. And that's impossible,
isn't it? It's impossible. His faith cannot
fail. And the glorious news is even
though we're full of unbelief, he goes on to tell us, even though
we believe not, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. So we can't deny him, but yet
we're still full of unbelief. But here's the glorious news
of the gospel. He cannot deny himself and you are hid in Christ
in the heavenlies right now. That's the good news of the gospel.
You cannot deny him, even though you're full of unbelief, even
though you're full of doubt and you're full of sin that you see,
yet he abideth faithful and he cannot deny himself. This is
a faithful saying. This is a faithful saying, brethren.
He just sees his darling son when he sees us. He doesn't see
the sin any longer. The first faithful saying was
that Christ saves sinners, his sinners. Second was as he promised
and gave them eternal life. And the third is how he did it.
He put our sin away by his own death. He cannot deny himself. When we died in him, we are now
presented as perfectly righteous because we were resurrected in
him as well. Now, the third one told us how
we died. The fourth one tells us how we live. Turn with me
to Titus chapter three. Titus chapter three, look at
verse eight. This is a faithful saying. These
things I will that thou affirm constantly. Do you notice a pattern
that Paul keeps mentioning? Now, this is a letter. This each each of these. Am I
in the wrong place? No, I'm not in the wrong place,
I'm sorry. Each of these letters that are written, there's a continual
pattern. He says, Timothy, put a remembrance. Timothy, remind them. Now Titus
is the same exact, and he says in verse eight, this is a faithful
saying, these things I will constantly affirm them. Affirm them constantly
over and over, that they which have believed in God might be
careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable. What's a faithful saying? How
we live in Christ is a faithful saying. How is that? Confessing
Him, confessing that Christ is all over and over. Now, this
affirm constantly, this remind them, this is bringing into remembrance,
calling to remembrance over and over. It's hitting the same nail
on the head over and over again, isn't it? The word of God never
contradicts itself. It never oversteps itself. It never frustrates itself. It
always affirms itself over and over and over. So what is he
telling us here? What is he telling us? That they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
Well, that word might be careful. That's one word, and it means
enabled to think, enabled to think. The second one, it says
to maintain. That means to set or place before, and the word
good means beautiful, comforting, or confirming. And you know what
the word works means. It means anything produced, whether
in hand or whether in mind. So what is the Lord saying here?
He's telling us that you might be careful, that you might be,
because you've been enabled to think, that you might set or
place before that which is beautiful, that which is comforting, that
which is confirming over and over again, whatever is produced
with hand or with mind. in word, in thought, or in deed. Now, how can we do that? The
scripture tells us, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever
you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10 31. How
do we do that? By confessing Christ is all in
word, in deed, and in thought over and over. That's good deeds. That's how we let our light so
shine before men. We confess Christ before men
and God. Christ is all to the glory of
God the Father. That's our confession. That is
your good works. That's all that you can produce
as far as what the Lord demands. And it's only by faith. It's
not for salvation. It's because salvation has came
and your confession is going to be the same over and over. Christ is all to the glory of
God the Father. Christ is all. This is our confession. This is what the Lord requires
is for us to confess Christ as our only righteousness, our only
hope. And he gives us the ability to do it. Don't misunderstand
what I'm telling us. Everything required, if it's required for
you to have good works, it must be provided by the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this is a confession that he has not only merited
himself, but he has bestowed and now requires of you. Think
about that. It would be the same as me giving a gift that I have
earned unto someone I loved dearly, my wife, we'll use her as an
example, that's the relationship the Lord gives us throughout
scripture, his husband and wife, be something that I merited, gave
to her and then required of her to please me. That's exactly
what it's like. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
did everything the father required for your salvation and then requires
it of you because Christ Jesus has bestowed it upon you. This
is the faithful saying I'm speaking of. These are the faithful sayings
of the Scripture. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Number one. Number two, he promised and gave
them eternal life in him. He did it by his own death that
we would that when he died, we died in him and he put away our
sin. And number four, we live in him. Confessing he is all before men
and before God. Now, These came across to me in chronological
order. And that's exactly how I read
them to you. We just continue going the same direction, which
it works out. I was amazed at how it worked out, actually,
how it flowed together. It seems as though that's how
the Lord's word is written so often, is it's not complicated
where you're running around trying to figure out. We go and look
for the Lord's face all over every page, but it doesn't, the
word of God doesn't frustrate itself. I love that. The hidden
mysteries of the Lord are revealed over and over again, and the
simplicity of it is revealed over and over again. Even in
the book of Revelation, I mentioned this to you before, it's the
revelation of Jesus Christ. And that's where the last faithful
saying is found. If you'd like to turn to Revelation chapter
22, The very last chapter, the very last book of the Bible.
Revelation 22, let's look at verse one. He showed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street
of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree
of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruits
every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations. There shall be no more curse
for the throne of God and of the Lamb, shall be in it, and
his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face,
and his name shall be in their foreheads, and there shall be
no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the
sun, for the Lord shall give them light. The Lord God giveth
them light, and they shall reign forever and ever." And he said
unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. And the Lord God of
the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the
things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings, the prophecy of this book. The first thing we see
is the pure river of water of life. Now understand that all
life, all life came from this pure river of life. The scripture
tells us, for of him and through him and to him are all things,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Romans chapter 11,
verse 36. In John chapter 1, he tells us,
All things were made by Him. All things were made by Him.
And without Him, there was not anything that was made that was
made. He is the creator and sustainer
of everything, all life as we know it. Everything has proceeded
from Him in the form of life. He's the first cause of all things.
Everything has been purposed to glorify Him, to honor Him.
Now, I want you to notice that on either side of this river,
bears a tree of life. What does that mean? Well, I
am reminded that in the scripture, the only thing that separates
us from eternity is the River Jordan, the River Jordan, the
river of death. So on this side of eternity,
the Lord has given us the tree of life, which bears all manner
of fruit, which bears 12 manner of fruit. bears 12 manner of
fruit. And on the other side of the
river, there's a tree of life, which bears 12 manner of fruit.
You remember what the number 12 means. It was for the disciples,
wasn't it? And it was for the 12 tribes
of Israel, wasn't it? It's a representation of the
Lord's entire church, His entire people. So what is He saying
with this 12 manner of fruit? Everything you need. Everything
required of God in you, Christ Jesus supplies in his person.
He bore the fruit that we could not bear. He is the sustainer
of life on this side of eternity. He is the sustainer of life on
that side of eternity. He is all to the glory of God
the Father. Tells us that every month it's
new, every month. Every day there's new manna for
the Lord's people, aren't they? And the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
what this is a representation of is that the Lord gives and
supplies everything required. He supplied everything needed.
He supplied in his person. I love when it says that in verse
three tells us, there shall be no more curse, but the throne
of God and the lamb shall be in it. And his servants shall
serve him. I love that. Our only hope is
that we'll be counted among this number. And how do we serve Him? We just confess the same thing
there that we've been confessing here the whole time, that Christ
Jesus is all to the glory of God the Father forever and ever
and ever. They shall see his face. What
does that mean? John tells us that when we shall
see him, we shall be like him for we shall be made like he
is. I quote that often because I find great comfort in knowing
this mortal shall put on immortality. We're gonna disrobe this flesh,
this dead corpse that we haul around, and we are literally
gonna have a body that's fashioned exactly like Christ's. That's our hope. We're gonna
see him face to face. And then he says, his name shall
be in their foreheads. Now in religion, and I refer
to religion a lot, but in religion, men would talk about the Antichrist
and how the number of the Antichrist is in the forehead of those that
are his. And now we have the Lord Jesus
Christ and those that are his have his name in their foreheads. I want us to pay close attention
to the wording here. It doesn't say on, their foreheads,
does it? It doesn't say on. You can put
a crown on somebody's head. You can't put a crown in somebody.
I mean, I guess you could, but you understand what I'm saying.
Not with them living, you couldn't, could you? I mean, I think I'm
making sense here. This, having his name in their
foreheads is literally telling us that it's in the frontal part. of our mind, we don't think about
anything else but Jesus Christ. That's what he's telling us.
That's all our thoughts are on. Isn't that right? That's what
he's saying to us. His name is in our foreheads. There's nothing
else on our mind. Even when we come to worship,
how often do we drift off and think about something all of
a sudden? I've been in a service before and felt like I didn't
hear anything. Felt like I spent the entire
time worried about life and everything else. I'm like, Lord, I was embarrassed
of myself and I and I come again. The next time is a mercy beggar
said, Lord, I know that you're the one that I have to cause
me to focus when you're we're in eternity with him. We will
constantly have him on our mind all the time and nothing else.
That's it. His name will be in our forehead. That's what that
means. That has to be what that means. And we can find out why in verse
five. There shall be no knot there,
and they shall need no candle, neither light of the sun, for
the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever
and ever with Him. God hath given us Christ, and
there He shall give us Christ, our light, forever and ever and
ever." It'll be an endless day of worship, an endless day of
seeing His face, These are the faithful sayings of God. First,
Christ Jesus saves sinners. Second, he promised and gave
them eternal life in him. Thirdly, how he did it was, is
when he died, we died in him according to his work, according
to his taking of our sin into himself. And he put away our
sin by himself. That's how we died. How do we
live is another faithful saying. Number four, We live in him confessing
he is all before men and he is all before God looking unto Christ. Lastly, number five, he has provided
everything needed for eternity for his people. The curse has
been lifted. He has provided salvation for
eternity for his people. We shall be with him worshiping
forever. Notice in verse 7, Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he
that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. If we
look over a few verses, he tells us, if any man take away from
the words of this book of prophecy, I'll take his part out of the
Lamb's book of life. If you add to it, I'll add unto
him the plagues that are written in this book. What is he saying?
Well, he tells us right here, he that keepeth the sayings of
this prophecy, who keeps the sayings? Christ Jesus kept them
for his people. And we do not add one thing to
it, and we do not take away one thing from it, do we? Christ
Jesus is all. These are faithful sayings. These
are the faithful sayings of the Lord. And this is our only hope
in salvation. Father, thank you for your faithful
sayings. Thank you for your faithfulness. Calls us to be found in your
righteousness. Give us the faith of Christ.
Calls us to be found with his faithfulness. Calls us to be
found faithful in him.