Review of Entire Series

Introduction from Acts 20 and Pastoral Rationale

0:02 Will you follow, please, as I read several verses from Acts chapter 20 in introducing our study in the Word of God this morning. I wish to remind you of the words from the Apostle Paul spoken to the elders, the overseers, the God-appointed shepherds of the church at Ephesus,

0:29 particularly his words beginning with verse 28 of Acts 20. Take heed or pay close attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers to feed or to shepherd the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departing, grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock,

0:58 And from among your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Wherefore, watch ye. As many of you who are part of this congregation know, the elders of this assembly meet almost without exception every Saturday evening for anywhere from three, sometimes four hours to

1:26 to discuss over and to pray concerning the affairs of this assembly. And many of you will remember that three weeks ago we met in a special session, a session that was precipitated by the growth of our congregation, particularly over the past year, year and a half, and the awareness that if we were to be obedient to the charge of this passage, namely to take heed

1:55 to all the flock of God, to shepherd the flock, to be watchful with respect to its well-doing, that it was necessary for us to come together to discuss how we might better shepherd and guide this growing flock of God's purchased sheep. And one of the many things discussed and prayed over was the matter of what would be in the best interest of the flock of God in terms of the public ministries of the Word of God. Although Pastor Fisher is the regular teacher of the adult class, and I am the regular preacher here in our stated hours of worship, and though there is a sense in which we are responsible to God alone for that which we give, there is another sense in which

2:45 We simply represent in terms of the substance of our teaching that which the elders as the overseers believe is in the best interest of the flock of God. And as the elders discussed this matter, they were of one mind that it would be in the best interest of the present state of the congregation if I were to return in the Sunday morning expositions to the series entitled

3:15 here we stand, and in the evening to the series entitled Practical Christianity. Since we believe the scripture which says in the multitude of counselors there is safety, I have from the heart embraced the consensus of my fellow elders, and therefore, apart from those exceptional times of digression in which I trust they still give me my liberty, we shall return to these two basic spheres of study in the Word of God. So this morning then, after a lapse of some five or six months, we pick up the series entitled, Here We Stand. And for our meditation this morning, you will be getting nothing more or less than a rather extensive review of the main thrust of the 44 previous sermons already given. Now what I hope to accomplish in this review is

Three Goals for This Review

4:15 is first of all to give a helpful introduction to those who are new amongst us. It would be unfair to break right in and not seek to give you a feel for where we have been in this series of studies and where we are going. It's as though you came in a very sumptuous seven-course meal at about the fourth course. At least you'd like to know and at least smell what had gone before, even if there wasn't time for you to sit down and eat it all.

4:44 And a number of you have come amongst us since this series began a year ago, this past spring. Just prior to my entering the hospital for surgery, we had three expositions and then a lapse of six or seven weeks. And then when I was back in the pulpit, we resumed it in June of 1976. And so for those who have not been with us, I do feel a responsibility to give what I hope will be a helpful introduction to what has preceded, and I hope in some cases out of this will come the wetting of your appetite, that you might obtain the tapes of those expositions because they are dealing, as you shall see, with some of the most elementary issues of the Christian faith. But then I have a second goal in mind in giving this extensive review. I hope it will provide

5:38 an edifying recall of the substance of the series for those who were here for the exposition. You remember Peter said in 2 Peter 1, 12 and 13, I think it neat to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. Though ye know these things and be established in them, I think it necessary to stir you up by way of remembrance. And I'm hoping that the recall of just the main thrust will gather within its

6:07 crane more than just the elementary issues dealt with, but that in a sense God will help us to relive something of the glory of some of those hours when God was pleased to pull back the veil and give us a sight of our Redeemer that ravished our hearts. You may go on a three-week vacation to a very special spot a year later to You sit down and spend ten minutes looking through some of the photographs, and in the ten minutes you can, as it were, by recall and association, relive many days of intense pleasure. Well, I hope that will happen this morning for those of you who are with us. And then I have a third reason in giving this extensive review this morning, and that is I trust to give an accurate impression to you who are visiting amongst us regarding the seriousness with which we regard the careful,

7:00 Accurate, systematic teaching of the Word of God. God has drawn this congregation together, not by gimmicks, not by flashy programs, not by sensational preaching, but He has drawn this congregation together on the basis of solid, careful, systematic exposition and application of the Word of God. And if you are visiting amongst us, there is no way for you to be impressed with that reality more quickly than to consider what has been the main diet of the people of God every Lord's Day morning for about a year and a half. Now that's a rather ambitious goal to have, that in the next 40 minutes there should be a helpful introduction to those who are new amongst us, an edifying recall for those who have been with us, and an accurate impression of what this ministry is all about for those who

7:59 who are visiting today. So let me urge you at this point to gird up the loins of your mind and to follow me as I take you at breakneck speed through this review of the entire series. Now I will be more tied to my paper than normal, and by paper I am using the term the old Scottish preachers used to talk about, preaching with or without paper.

8:23 Well, I'm going to be preaching with my eyes very frequently upon my notes for the simple reason that as I begin to announce some of these themes, I'm afraid that if I don't stick with my notes, the sheer joy of contemplating again the glory of the Word of God, the glory and majesty of the Son of God and His salvation, that I'll take off on any one of those points and not accomplish my goal and have to continue the review next week. And I don't want to do that. And the scriptures say that the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. I don't claim to be a prophet. I'm just a teacher and preacher of the word of God. But the principle is there, that whoever teaches and preaches the word is to have control of his own spirit in that exercise. And the best way I know to control my spirit is to stick with my notes. So bear with me, please.

9:17 I don't like to preach with that much reference to my notes, but it's in the interest of your edification that I do so. It'd be far more edifying to me personally to just take off whenever I get the urge. So much then for that introduction that I trust will bring you in your thinking to the precise point that we've now arrived at, coming to this review of what this whole series has been about.

Nature and Purpose of the Series

9:44 First of all, I would remind you of the nature of this series entitled Here We Stand. It is intended to provide a broad overview of the major elements of the Christian faith as understood, believed, and preached and practiced by the people of God in the past and by this congregation today. taking our clue from the words of Martin Luther who confessed the faith of God's people, the faith that had been buried more or less for centuries in the rubble of tradition, standing before his accusers, pointing to his books which expressed his understanding of the Christian faith in its essence. Here I stand, so help me God, I can do no other. Well, here we stand, at this point in the history of the church,

10:38 In other words, the nature of this series is to be understood in terms of its being an analysis of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. In Jude verse 3, Jude says...

11:06 that the people of God are to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Well, you cannot contend for that faith if you are ignorant of it. And so the nature of this series, then, is a broad overview of the substance of that faith once for all delivered. The materials, then, are to be gleaned, not from one particular book or chapter, but from the Old and the New Testaments, the key text of Scripture bearing upon those essential elements of the Christian faith have been expounded and applied, and that will continue to be our method. Then secondly, I would remind you of the purpose of this series. When I introduced it back in the spring of 76, I suggested in very plain language that its purpose was to confirm the old-timers

12:04 initiate the newcomers and inform the onlookers, to confirm the old-timers. Truths that are assumed but not expounded soon become truths forgotten, and truths forgotten ultimately become truths rejected. And so it is essential for the people of God again and again to come back to the great fundamental pivots of their faith. And so the purpose of this series is to confirm the old-timers, the fathers and mothers in Israel amongst us, and then to initiate newcomers, people who come from a background where there has been very little acquaintance with the historic Christian faith. And it would take, in a sense,

12:58 a lifetime to come to some adequate understanding of the whole witness of Scripture, say, to the person of Christ. Well, our concern is to take the major portions and in a concentrated form, set before you in short compass that great truth. So, to initiate newcomers is our second great purpose, and then to inform those who are looking on, wondering, well, what is the Christian faith? What is this church all about?

13:26 And it's a great delight to know that these categories are constantly changing. I know of specific instances where when this series began, the thought of being an onlooker was not too pleasant to some, but they're no longer onlookers, they're newcomers. They've passed over the threshold of onlookers and they're now a part of us. And thank God some of the newcomers are old-timers. They've grown in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, But I hope you have not grown beyond feeling the necessity of coming back again and again to the essential elements of the faith. So the nature of the series, a broad overview. The purpose, to confirm, to initiate, to inform. Now the substance of the series thus far. The first area of concern was to attack the issue of what is this book. You see, there is no more vital a question than the question...

Division One: The Book We Believe and Obey

14:25 What is the source of our authority? On what basis can we affirm anything? On what basis do we confess anything? On what basis has the historic church derived its thinking concerning God and sin and salvation? So our first area of concern was that which I entitled, The Book We Believe and Obeyed.

14:53 Fundamental to all that we believe and think is our view of and treatment of the Scriptures. And the Church through the centuries and this congregation today confesses without reservation that we believe the Bible to be nothing less than the words of God in the language of men. That's what the Bible is. The words of God...

15:23 In the language of men. Why do we believe that? Well, that's the witness of Scripture to itself. And the two key texts. And every Christian ought to know where these are. Better yet, he ought to be able to quote them. And better yet, he ought to be able to expound them. 2 Timothy 3.16 All Scripture is inspired of God, better rendered. All Scripture is God-breathed.

15:53 is the breath of God. God is its author. We read in 2 Peter 1.21, Holy men of God spake as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this book that we believe and obey is nothing less than the deposit of the words of God. What Scripture says, God says.

16:22 And our Lord Jesus Christ again and again equates the words of David in the Psalms with the word of the living God. But it is the words of God in the language of men. Holy men of God speak. And when men speak and write, they don't speak and write as angels. God didn't take up a new vocabulary.

16:48 When he gave his word in the context of the Hebrew nation, he spoke in Hebrew. When he gave it in the context of Greek and Aramaic, he gave us that kind of language. And so the Bible is the words of God in the language of men. And because of that simple fact, we regard this book to be a book of absolute authority.

17:17 When we deal with this book, we're dealing with the God who gave it. We believe it to be a book of complete inerrancy. Since it is the God who is true that speaks, He speaks nothing but truth. And Jesus said, Thy word is truth. And the psalmist said, The sum of thy word is truth. Some would say the sum of the word of God is truth plus human error.

17:45 human weakness, human deficiency, human cultural limitations. No, the sum of thy word is truth. Thy word is truth. And therefore this book we regard, although it is in the language of men, it is the words of God, the God who cannot lie.

18:06 Therefore we confess its absolute authority, its complete inerrancy, and thirdly, its unfailing sufficiency. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, The God-breathed words are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.

18:34 We do not need Scripture plus tradition. We do not need Scripture plus the pronouncements of the counsels of learned men. We do not need Scripture plus the latest mouthings of psychology and sociology. If we would be complete men and women, we need the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone. That's the book we believe and obey. Then the second major area of concern...

Division Two: The God We Worship and Confess

19:02 was to consider briefly the God whom we worship and confess. You children can answer this question. What are the first words of the Bible? In the beginning, God. You see, the first person we confront in the Bible is not man. It's God. And in a sense, Moses, by the guidance of the Spirit, is announcing the central figure in Scripture...

19:30 It is God. This book is to be an account of the doings of God. Granted, God in relationship to the earth, in relationship to man, in relationship to angels, but the central figure in the Word of God is God Himself. And so it is essential for us if we would stand in the great stream of the true people of God to confess our faith in the living and the true God.

20:00 God whom we worship and confess. Who is he? Well, we believe he is one of a kind. There is but one true and living God. And this was the great confession stamped upon the first line of the confessional statement of God's ancient people. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt have no other gods besides me.

20:27 We understand from the Scriptures that that God is the God of absolute perfection, unrivaled sovereignty, infinite goodness, and mysterious tri-personality. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You see, when we confess, saying the God whom we worship and confess is none other than the God of the Old and the New Testaments, the God revealed in Scripture both

20:55 by statements about Him and in His mighty acts, and above all, in His mighty redemption in the Lord Jesus. We confess Him to be the God of infinite perfection. We confess Him to be the God of unrivaled sovereignty in the language of Psalm 115.3. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.

21:20 We worship no God whose hands are tied and whose fingers nervously tap, waiting to see what others will do so that He may plan His move. That's not our God. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He is the God of unrivaled sovereignty. But it is no brute sovereignty that is all muscle and steel, as it were, but no heart.

21:49 He is the God of infinite goodness, whose goodness is manifested in all his creation, whose goodness is supremely manifested in the redemption of his Son, and he is the God of mysterious tri-personality. Though he is but one God, we are not polytheists. The Scripture says the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, and unlike the

22:16 carnal, rationalistic mind of the poor, deluded Russellite who sneers with the knowing look and he says, ha, ha, ha, how can three be one? Even a little kid in the second grade can add up better than that. We do not seek to answer his rationalism with a rationalism of our own. We simply say, my friend, if God ever reveals himself to you, you'll know him to be what he is. One God who is Father, who is Son, who is

22:46 who is Spirit, who is only known as Father through the redemption that is in Christ, which redemption will never be known vitally and personally apart from God the Spirit, opening your eyes to the glory of it and leading you to faith and repentance. That's the God whom we confess. No new God, no novel God. That's the God whom we worship in this place.

23:13 Some of you wonder why is it that our worship services are relatively simple compared with the services of other assemblies? It's because of the nature of the God whom we worship. You don't play games in the presence of that kind of God. He's a God who elicits awe. He's a God who elicits full-souled praise.

23:36 He's a God in the language of Hebrews 12 who is to be served with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. It's the nature of our God that demands the climate of worship that we seek to render to Him. Well then, very quickly, we came to the third major division and there we've been ever since. The salvation we receive and proclaims.

Division Three: The Salvation We Receive and Proclaim — Objects

24:04 having considered the nature of the book we believe and obey, the God whom we worship and confess, we then began to consider the salvation we receive and proclaim. For as surely as the first words of the Bible announce the central figure, the being of God, you don't read long before you realize that the central theme is this God at work to save

24:33 lost men and to restore a cursed creation. And in that sense, salvation as it serves the ultimate end of God's glory is the great theme of the Word of God. And so we considered under that broad heading the salvation we receive and proclaim, first of all, the objects of this salvation. Man is the primary object, man created in God's image.

25:03 Man fallen in Adam. Man elect in Christ. It is man who is the object, the primary object of that salvation. But there is a secondary object, and that's the earth itself. As God suited the earth for man in the original creation, so when man fell, God suited the earth to his fallen condition. And the Scripture says, Cursed is the earth for thy sake. Well, when the curse is taken off from man,

25:32 It will be taken off from the earth, Romans 8. The whole creation groans and travails together, waiting for what? For redemption to be complete in man. And then the earth, as it were, will throw off its grave clothes, and there will be a renewed earth. Does that ever fill you with a sense of amazement? You see, redemption touches man and the creation, but sin touched another realm of created reality. Sin touched the angels.

26:02 But redemption doesn't. Think of it. Beings that were made with far more dignity in many ways than you and I were made with. The Scripture says that the angels that kept not their first habitation are held in chains awaiting the judgment of the last day. And I trust this is no empty intellectual exercise to contemplate who are the objects of redemption. God has bypassed angels.

26:32 And he has set his affection upon men. He has chosen to redeem men and to redeem the earth for man's sake, for whom it was cursed. Well, having considered the objects of salvation, we then moved on to consider the central figure in this salvation, our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Central Figure: Christ Himself

26:55 And surely if we pick up our Bibles and are doing anything other than drowsily threading words through our eyes, we cannot evade this tremendously simple fact, or this fact that comes with tremendous simplicity, that the central figure in this salvation is this person called the Lord Jesus Christ. He is announced in Genesis 3.15 as the seed of the woman who will bruise the head of the serpent. He is prefigured in all the Old Testament types and shadows, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the tabernacle, the temple. He is announced by the prophets. He fills the vision of the gospel records. He is the theme of the preaching in the book of the Acts. He is the central figure of all the teaching in the epistles. And when we turn to the last book in the Bible, it is called the revelation of Jesus Christ. Surely Christ is the central figure of

27:53 in this great salvation. And our Lord Himself understood the Scriptures that way, for we read in Luke 24 and verse 27, when our Lord would expound the Scriptures to people who are despondent at the thought that their Messiah has died, and all their hopes are dashed. We read in Luke chapter 24 and verse 27 these words well known to many of you, that as the Lord Jesus walked, He And conversed with these people. This is what he did. And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets. He interpreted to them in all the scriptures. The things concerning himself. There was no segment of scripture. Which could not be brought into service that day on the road to Emmaus. For the great theme of scripture is Christ.

28:48 And to have Christ himself expounding that great theme was a privilege that some of us must wait a while yet to enjoy. But I believe it will be one of our great delights in the world to come. Well then, we have been considering, or we did consider for a number of months then, this central figure. And we did so under two basic headings. We considered Christ in the mystery of his person, and secondly, in the majesty of his offices.

Mystery of Christ's Person

29:19 For you see, the person of Christ, or who he is, is the foundation for the work of Christ, that is, what he does in saving sinners. Have you ever wondered why the early church was so persnickety about defining precisely what the Scripture said about the person of Christ? Have you sometimes thought they were just a bunch of intellectuals who got sidetracked? They should have been out evangelizing, winning souls. What are they doing getting together and debating for days on the significance of one Greek word? Homoousia or homoousia? Ah, come on, come off it. Ah, no, my friend, they understood something. That...

30:03 Jesus Christ in the uniqueness of His person is constituted what He has constituted so that He may perform the work assigned to Him. There is no luxury woven into the person of Christ. He is just what He is that He might do just what He did. And if you tamper with what He is, you render Him ineffectual to do what He came to do.

30:31 And so we simply took the historic witness of the church in the area that theologians call Christology. That is the doctrine of Christ. And we saw that when we take all the materials of the Bible, we come to this conclusion that Christ's person is to be understood as constituted of three simple realities. He is true God. As much God as though He were never man.

31:00 Everything that can be said of God can be said of Christ. And we looked at all the evidence. I'm not quoting a lot of Scripture this morning. That would only impress you perhaps with my memory of Scripture. But all of this was established by Scripture, text upon text, in which we saw that He's called God. He possesses the attributes of God. He does the works of God. He receives the worship of God. He is true God. Secondly, the Bible teaches without any question He is true man.

31:31 He was not a phantom. He was not something that was semi-man, semi-angel. No, no. True man. Everything that is true of a man as man, Jesus Christ was and is. Sin is no essential part of humanity. Sin is an intruder. And all that man is as man, Jesus Christ was and is.

32:01 And is. Not simply was. Is. As the old preachers used to say, there is a man in the glory. One God, one mediator between God and man. Himself man. Right now. Christ Jesus. We have a high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He's carried that reservoir.

32:30 Sympathetic humanity into the presence of God himself there in the glory. He is true man. And then the third element in the confession of the mystery of this person is, this one who is true God and true man is one person in two natures forever. One person. You read through the Gospels, and it doesn't say the deity of Christ did this. It says Christ did it.

32:58 And what he does is obviously an act of God. He forgives sins. Not in anyone's name, but on his own authority. And the people standing by say, who can forgive sins but God only? He says, you've got the message. Then he does things that are the acts of a man. He, being wearied with his journey, sat thus by a well. John 4. Well, it's not an attribute of God to get weary. Isaiah 40 says, the Almighty fainteth not, neither is weary.

33:26 But it doesn't say the humanity of Jesus got weary. It says Jesus was weary. You see, there's one person. It doesn't say the deity did this, the humanity did this. No, no. It is the one person. Yet two distinct natures. God cannot die, yet the Lord of glory was crucified.

33:52 And as we saw week after week in the contemplation of it, no wonder the apostle exclaims in 1 Timothy 3.16, Great is the mystery of godliness, he who was manifested in the flesh. My friend, it ought to humble you and humble me to think that our depth of need was so great that nothing less than this greatest gospel mystery could answer to our need.

34:19 There had to be the bringing together in the person of the Redeemer essential, true, undiluted Godhead with essential, true, undiluted manhood in one person, in two natures forever. And God wasn't playing games. He was so thirsty for our salvation that He contrived the mystery of the Incarnation. That's the Christ whom He worshipped.

Majesty of Christ's Offices: Priesthood Surveyed

34:47 That's the Christ whom we adore. That's the Christ in whom we trust. The mystery of his person. And then the second major category of this central figure, the majesty of his offices. We considered him in his offices, that is, his official position and function as a savior. The name and number of his offices, you children ought to know them, prophet, priest, and king.

35:15 And then because the priestly office of Christ is central in the Word of God, we disrupted the normal order. There we differed with some of the statements in the old confessions, in the old catechisms, because ultimately we are not answerable to men's confessions, but to the Word of God. And we saw in Scripture the priestly office of Christ is predominant. And it is His function as a priest that in a sense determines what He is as a prophet.

35:45 and what He is as a King. It is because He is a priest that He makes known to us the will of God for our salvation. It is because He is a priest that there is a kingdom of grace and a gracious King who rules and brings sinners under His scepter of grace. And so for weeks we gazed upon our great High Priest

36:10 And I can only in the five remaining minutes now try to distill all of that by reminding you of two simple categories in which we contemplated much of the teaching of the Word of God concerning Christ our great priest. I suggested that his priestly functions could be understood in two categories. The earthly, once-for-all priestly activity and the heavenly, continuous activity.

36:39 As a priest, Jesus carried out His functions in the two realms. When He was a priest upon earth, His priestly function was primarily that of sacrifice. In the language of Hebrews, He offered Himself unto God. He made an objective, substitutionary, penal satisfaction for sin. That is, He rendered to God full obedience, and obedience even unto death, in which He bore the wrath of God against the sins of His people. But He didn't stop being a priest when He hung His head upon the cross, for the Scriptures tell us in passages such as Hebrews 7.25, He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth, to make intercession for them. And His primary function is

37:39 In His heavenly continuous work as a priest is the work of intercession. It has a Godward reference. He presents our case. There is advocacy. There is that constant ministry directed to the Father. And as our series concluded at the break back some five months ago...

Bridge to Succoring Ministry: Hebrews 2:18

38:00 We are on the verge of considering one of the manward dimensions of his priestly ministry, and I just want to close on that note by way of a few thoughts this morning. Not only in his continuous priestly activity is there a Godward dimension, but the Scriptures tell us, and I would ask you now to look at this passage as we conclude this morning, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 18.

38:26 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Notice the text does not say he was able, but he is able. Not to succor those that were tempted. In other words, the language of this text does not limit this ministry to the days of our Lord's flesh.

38:56 It is speaking of a priestly ministry which our Lord undertakes now from heaven. But notice the direction of it. Intercession is directed to the Father. But soccer is directed to the tempted. So there is a priestly function that Christ carries on on behalf of His people that has a reference to them in their need.

39:25 And this word, sucker, is an interesting word. It originally comes from the combination of a couple of words, which means to respond to a cry for help. When someone cries for help, they cry because they're in a state of need. And if you respond both with heart and with willing and able hand, what have you done? You have, in the language of our text, you have suckered them.

39:52 You see, it's not like the help you give when you walk by a store and there's a little box for the march of dimes and you throw a dime in. Now that's helping whatever causes are there, but that's not succor. Sucor has bound up in it the help that is given in response to a cry that comes out of a context of need. If you ever had any doubts as to why Jesus Christ has to be God to do His work as a priest, think of it.

40:20 Think of all of His children throughout all of the earth at any given moment. Think this morning. Here are some 400 of us here this morning. In other places, 50, 100, 2,000, 3,000 scattered throughout the earth. And think of God's people in their tempted state. Tried and buffeted by the remains of indwelling sin, by the pressures of the world, by the strange providences of God that are His schoolroom to teach them of Himself and of His ways.

40:50 And in the midst of all of that, the text says, when there is the cry of need, Jesus Christ lends succor to them. He ministers to them. In what way? I can do no better than to quote John Owen. Speaking or writing on this text, He succors them how? By one, giving them strength to withstand their temptations, that the temptations prevail not against them. Two,

41:18 He gives them consolation to support their spirits under their trials. 3. He gives them seasonable deliverance from their trials. Unto these is the succor afforded by our great High Priest and is perfectly suited to their specific need. And He succors by communicating unto them supplies of grace and spiritual strength, by communicating to them strong consolations

41:48 by rebuking their tempters and temptations, thus turning them away by His providential disposing of all things to their good and advantage. That's what He does to succor us. Now man, that's enough for a half a dozen people with just one of us. But He succors all of His children in all the diversity of their need, not only interceding, performing the work of advocacy,

Preview of Prophetic Office

42:18 answering every claim of the law against us. But wonder of wonders, we have a high priest who this very moment is succoring all of his children. Well, God willing, we shall begin next Lord's Day morning to consider our blessed Lord in the majesty of his office as a prophet, having contemplated him as our priest in that great sacrifice made for sinners.

Closing Appeal and Prayer

42:47 having contemplated him as a priest in his work of advocacy and succoring, we shall now consider him as the great prophet of his church, who makes known to his people the will of God for their salvation, that's the language of the shorter catechism, who makes known to them the will of God for every area of life. May God grant that our hearts will be prepared of the Spirit to come and revel in the contemplation of Christ. My final word is directed to those of you who perhaps have sat here this morning and said, I could care less to hear anything about Jesus Christ. Well, my friend, if your heart is not thirsty to know him, it's because you're a stranger to his salvation. For Peter tells us in his own epistle two things about every true Christian. In 2 Peter 1.8 he says, Whom having not seen ye love, in whom believing...

43:45 Every Christian has a two-fold reaction to the proclamation of Christ. If he's a believer, his love is deepened, his faith is strengthened. Having not seen him, you love him, in whom believing. And you see, faith always delights to know more of its object, and love always delights to contemplate its object. So if there is no thirst to know more of Christ,

44:14 If there is no longing to contemplate Christ, it's because you're a stranger to the salvation of Christ. But in spite of your indifference to him, his compassion and patience is greater than your hard-hearted indifference. And he offers himself to you again this morning in the gospel and says, I am yours if you will have me. I am yours if you will have me. May God grant.

44:44 You shall no longer despise and ignore so glorious a Savior, but that you will lay hold upon Him and become His. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You this morning for the Scriptures. We do not despise nor despise

45:23 We thank you for the more sure word of prophecy. We thank you that you have given us a book in which you have unfolded to us the nature of your own being, in which you have told us what we are.

45:43 in which you have set forth the glory of your Son and the mighty salvation that is to be found in Him, we pray that as a people, once again engaging our minds in the consideration of these great issues of your word, that you will help us to gird up the loins of our minds, that we shall not be found amongst those who simply want to have their ears tickled with the sensational things or to be carried along, as it were, by issues that do not demand the concentration of mind and soul. But help us, by your grace, to be those whose thirst to know your dear Son is such as to overcome every measure of indisposition in our flesh. May our hearts run hard after you. We pray for those who have no appetite to know your Son. God, be merciful to them.

46:41 And may the Holy Spirit be pleased to shine in their darkened hearts and give them such a sight of Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel, as will cause them to fall at His feet and cry with Thomas, My Lord and my God, hear us, our Father, and be with us as we seek in these days that lie before us to know more accurately and to obey more perfectly The revelation you have made of yourself and of your will.