It's Advent, the season of the year when we look forward to the coming of the Savior. At the end of John 5, Jesus told Jewish leaders that they'd be held accountable by Moses, as it says, "For he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" Today we begin a look at the ways Moses was holding out hope for the arrival of Jesus, seeing him first as the covenant keeper. Stay with us from Chicago. This is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller.
Today, the first of three looks at a long expected Jesus. Our focus will be on the covenant keeper. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and assistant pastor Larry McCarthy.
Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Moody Church. We're so glad you're here joining us. We're talking about the covenant keeper—the fact that our God is a covenant-keeping God, and that we can trust Him with our lives. Would you join me in standing, and let's pray and give this service to the Lord. Heavenly Father, we gather here for the glory of Your name, because You are a faithful God.
You keep Your covenant of love to a thousand generations. You are faithful from beginning to end, and Your faithfulness is our hope. And so we cling to You, and we thank You for Jesus, who is the ultimate fulfiller of all Your covenant promises. The faithful One, who is faithful not just to You but to us as well.
So we give this time to you in Jesus' name, Amen. Think about how a world in darkness can see one candle shine very brightly.
So this is the idea of the coming of the light. And as Advent builds, the light builds too. The revelation of God's plan, God's purpose, God's promises in Jesus grows, and we understand it better. Until Christmas, when He's here, He's born, and the world is flooded with His light.
So there's a lot to celebrate, and that's the meaning of Advent. Glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth, mercy on the sea, joy to all the angels, joy to all the stars. Angels rejoice, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Glory to the newborn King.
Glory to the newborn King. Joy that's born on the world, joy that's born in the nations, God's salvation now on earth, hope for every nation, love without end, glory to the newborn King, love without end, Jesus born a baby. Isn't that good news? Celebrate the newborn King, see and adore Him, give Him the praise, praise Him, praise Him, praise the Lord.By His blood, we're saved.
Son of God, Son of God, given as a ransom, reconciling God and man, Christ our mighty. Each and every one, a savior of a friend, while the glorious history was savaging in the end, now the Lord of history, oh. Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah!
Glory, hallelujah! Come to Bethlehem and see. Here was born the Angel's King. Come on the morn of the new morning. Glory, glory, hallelujah!
In Majesty's name. Glory, glory, hallelujah! In Majesty's name. What a joyful day! Aren't you glad you came today?
Father, we come into your presence, and we. Thank you again for the access that you give us. You allow us to come from anywhere, and we can come about anything. And so, Father, we come. You are sovereign from coast to coast, from country to country.
You hold the universe in place by the sheer force of your will. You reign, Father, and we rejoice this morning because the fact that you reign gives us hope. And so, Father, our prayer is simple this morning: that you would visit each household that is worshiping with us today, and that you would provide a fresh appreciation of your sovereignty, but a fresh appreciation of the hope that comes because you love us. Your children need comfort this morning, Father. Won't you comfort them?
We cry out to you for mercy, Father. We're well aware that there are many people who are unsheltered in Chicago today, and they'll be cold and hungry. We thank you for the provision you've given each one of us. We thank you for the grace that you pour out in our lives. Would you meet us where we are, Father, and give us what we need today?
Use your word as only you can. Let it go forth with power and authority today. Provide hope. We pray now in the matchless name of Jesus. And amen.
Long-awaited, precious promise, some of God and some of man. Heaven's glory, in the manger, has come to us in Bethlehem. Oh, Messiah, Messiah, the baby born to save us all. Messiah, Messiah, our needs we call. All we long for, all we need, in the child's eyes, born ever deep because of this holy night.
Messiah, Messiah, the baby born to save. Messiah, Messiah, all nations we call. Oh, come, let us adore. Oh, come, let us adore. O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
Long awaited, precious promise. Coming back again, Messiah, Messiah, baby boy, save us all. Messiah, Messiah, my knees weak. We bow before you this morning, Lord. Thank you for the.
Great gift of your Son for us, because you loved the world. In Jesus' name, Amen. One small child in a land of a thousand. One small dream of a sacred tonight. One small hand reaching out to the stars.
One small city of love. Oh. One king bringing his glory to light. One king ruling in all divine right. One king living within sense and ken.
One king bringing the smile. Oh. Seeing smiling, my greatest smile. Seeing smiling, my smile. Seeing smiling, my greatest smile.
Seeing smiling, I do. One small light from the flame of a candle. One small light from a city of lights. One small light from the stars in the endless night. One small light from a flame.
See the shepherds meet before me. See the king's unrendered knee. See his mother praising his father. See the blessed. One small child in a land of a thousand.
One small dream in a people of might. One small hand reaching out to the stars. One small savior of a thousand. At the end of John chapter five, Jesus told the religious leaders that they would be held accountable. Because Moses wrote of Jesus, so Moses himself will be the one to hold them accountable.
Because Moses wrote of me, Jesus said he writes this or he said this. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Moses, of course, wrote the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And together we know these books as the Pentateuch. And so, for Advent this year, what we're doing is we are looking at five ways that Moses was holding out hope for the coming of Jesus, who is the the curse breaker, the covenant keeper, the law mediator, the sin atoner, and the promise fulfiller.
This week we come to the covenant keeper, the covenant keeper. I want to take us back four thousand years to the ancient Near East, where God appears to a man by the name of Abram and enters into a covenant with him that will change the course of human history.
Now, in order to get our heads around this Abrahamic covenant, we need to look at a wide swath of text this morning. But we're going to begin with Genesis chapter twelve. And as we go through this study together this morning, I'm going to use three questions to kind of guide us along the way. The first question is who makes the covenant. The second question is who keeps the covenant, and the third question is who inherits the covenant.
Okay, so here we go this morning. Let's open God's Word together. But before we do that, would you bow your heads? Let's pray together. Father, we ask you now as we open your Word.
To show us more of Jesus, help us see Him in His glory, His splendor. That He is the faithful One. Help us to trust Him today. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Amen. So the first question is who makes the covenant? It all begins for us here in Genesis chapter twelve. If you'll open your Bibles to Genesis chapter twelve, we find a guy by the name of Abram, who is an idol worshiper from Ur. Ur is an ancient Sumerian coastal city built where the Euphrates River meets the Persian Gulf.
It was now ruled at this time by the Chaldeans. And one day, as Abraham is minding his own business in Genesis chapter twelve, verses one to three, this is what we read.
Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you." In him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
So God calls Abram here to leave everything and everyone that he knows in pursuit of a promise of a blessing that God is extending to him. And there's there's sort of three concentric circles of blessing here that I want to show you. The first circle of blessing is that God is offering a unique relationship. To Abraham, a unique relationship. God is offering Abraham a special relationship with Him.
Like all ancient Near Eastern peoples, Abram had certainly made offerings in the shrines and temples around sacrifices to the gods. But this was a different moment. This was direct. This was personal. This was real.
That God in heaven had reached down to earth in initiating a real relationship with Abram. That God is offering here to be His provider, His protector, His blesser, His keeper, His deity, and His destiny. It's as if God is saying, "Listen, Abram, I will be your God." And I will look after you and give you a land and ensure that you are blessed both now and for the generations who come after you. The second circle of blessing here, a little wider, is that Abram will have a great posterity. A great posterity.
These blessings aren't just for Abram, but they are also for his children. In fact, the promises center around these statements: "I will make of you a great family, a great nation, and by implication, this land that I am giving you will be yours and your family forever." This land that I will show you, and it's as if God is saying, "Listen, as I am your God, Abram, now I will also be God of your children after you." I will be their provider and protector. I will be their blesser and keeper. I will be their deity and their destiny.
So I will make your name great, and I will make your posterity great as well. And I will bless you, Abram, in order that you might be a blessing, because the third circle of blessing, even wider still, is a worldwide blessing—a worldwide blessing. Is ends with this curious phrase: "In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed." That these blessings are intended by God to start with Abram and then ripple out into his family, and then extend ultimately to all the families of the earth who would be blessed in him. God is saying, Abram, I'm beginning this thing with you, but it's bigger than you. It's about your family, which will be a great nation.
But it's bigger than your family. It's about the families of the earth, the nations. Abram, I am about to change the whole world, but I'm going to start with you. And Abraham, or Abram at this time, his name has not been changed yet, responds. Believes he gets up and he goes.
Eventually, he makes it to the land that is promised that God has showed to him in chapter thirteen. And God says, "Listen, all the land that you can see, I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will multiply your offspring; they'll be like the dust of the earth, so that nobody can count the dust. They won't be able to count your children. Go ahead, Abram.
Walk through the length and breadth of this land. I will give it to you." And again, we see a great land for a great posterity. This promise to Abraham, to Abram. At this point, I did it again. And Abram grows here in wealth and consequence.
But there's a fly in the ointment, and that is he does not have any children yet.
So in Genesis chapter fifteen, we pick it up there in verses one to six. This is what it says: After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.
But Abram said, "Oh Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus." And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." He says, "Look, I appreciate all the blessings, God. You've been very generous to me, but there's no one to inherit. I have no one to pass this along to. It's all going to go to my next of kin." Verse four.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: "This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir." And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward the heavens and number the stars, if you're able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. He says, "Your very own son will be your heir, and your offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky." And here is this key phrase: Abram believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. This is one of the most important verses in all of the Bible. Abraham, Abram believed God, and God counted it to him as righteousness.
Now, of course, this doesn't mean that Abram will never sin again. He does plenty of that in the subsequent chapters. But it does mean that God so esteems and values Abram's faith that He counts it as if Abram was righteous in every way before Him. Which means, friends, that God is one hundred percent for Abram. He's never against him.
That He will always move with power and authority on Abram's behalf, and that Abram is secure in the covenant love of the Lord God forever. And don't you see the relationship between Abram and God is getting closer? It's getting more intimate, more trustful, and so God responds in this moment with a covenant. The rest of Genesis fifteen describes how Abram, at God's direction, gathers some sacrificial animals and cuts them in half, lays them opposite each other with a little path down the middle. It's very strange to us, but this was an ancient Near Eastern way of of making a covenant.
It was a solemn covenantal ceremony, and basically, as they tore the animals apart, they were saying, "May I too be torn apart if I break the." Terms of this covenant.
Now, what we would expect in terms of ancient Near Eastern customs is for Abram and God to together then walk through the pieces and make this covenant together, each pledging themselves one to the other. But when the time comes to walk through the pieces, Abram is asleep. He's taking a long, deep nap. And God alone passes through the pieces; His presence symbolized by a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch.
Now, the meaning of this is abundantly clear to an ancient Near Eastern person: that God Himself alone is taking responsibility for the fulfillment of the terms of the covenant. God is saying, "May I be torn apart if I fail to uphold the terms of this covenant?" I am taking full responsibility for this covenant. Then, in Genesis seventeen, God reaffirms his covenant again. Let's look at this: Genesis seventeen verses three through eight. And God said to him, Abram, "Behold, my covenant is with you." And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. Am in Hebrew means people or nation, so we add that to Abram. Abram Am people nations coming from Abraham. I will make you exceedingly fruitful.
Nations and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your offspring after you. And I will give you and your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I. I will be there, God.
So this covenant with Abram is is now an everlasting covenant, not just with Abraham but with his children. And notice the promises I have made you, I will make you, I will establish, I will give to you, I will be their God. In all of these passages, friends, it is abundantly clear that God is the guarantor. Of the covenant, God is the guarantor of the covenant. These are His pledges.
These are His promises. These are His guarantees. God has taken full responsibility for the fulfillment of these covenant promises. He says, "I will do it." So you ask the question: Who makes the covenant? It is God.
He alone walks through the pieces. He takes full responsibility for its fulfillment.
Now, the second question then is: Who keeps the covenant? Who keeps the covenant?
Now we might be tempted to conclude that since God alone walks through the pieces and since He takes full responsibility for the fulfillment of the covenant, that Abraham is a totally passive party in this covenant arrangement; that he has no responsibilities whatsoever. But that assumption would be incorrect. Abram, it is clear as we read these passages, also has his part to do. In chapter twelve, for example, he has to go. God makes all the promises, but Abram has to get up and leave his family and step out into the promises of God.
In chapter fifteen, he has to believe. He believes, and God credits it to him as righteousness. In chapter seventeen, which we just read, as God is about to give him the name Abraham, along with all these great covenant promises, we just read. Listen to how it starts. We didn't read these verses, but we're going to catch it up now.
This is how he leads into those promises. Genesis seventeen verses one to three. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face.
Notice with me the language here: "Walk before me and be blameless." It's a pretty high standard. Right, be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.
Now, it's interesting, is he already made the covenant back in chapter fifteen, didn't he? And now he says, I need you to walk before me and be blameless, so that I may make this covenant with you. It's very interesting, and then Abram, of course, falls on his face because he feels the weight of the responsibility in this covenant. Look with me at Genesis 22.
Now, this is we haven't looked at this yet, but Abraham here has just offered Isaac on the altar. God has stayed His hand; Isaac will live. Genesis 22 verses 16 to 18 use some similar language. Verse sixteen, but by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, as the sand of the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you, because you have obeyed my voice.
Do you see, friends, the language of causation here? Because you have done this, I will surely bless you. I will surely multiply your offspring. In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Because you have obeyed my voice, friends, it seems that the surety of the covenant promises grows because of Abraham's faithful obedience, doesn't it?
That's what God is saying.
Now, another very important verse in this regard is in Genesis chapter eighteen, verse nineteen. Let me read that for us now: For I have chosen him. Abram, God speaking, Abraham. For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has promised him.
So Abraham here is to teach his children in his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abram and his children all the things that He has promised him. They must keep the way of the Lord. They must do righteousness and justice in order to receive the promises. And if they don't. It's not.
It's not going to happen.
So, in other words, what we're saying is that Abraham must walk worthy of the covenant. Abraham must walk worthy of the covenant. He is called here to be blameless and righteous and just in order that he might inherit the covenant promises. But of course, here lies the problem, doesn't it? Because Abraham is not blameless, righteous, and just—at least not all the time.
Just within these few chapters, we see him lying and manipulating and acting out of fear rather than faith in God. Yes, it is true that Abraham is the father of faith, but not everything he did was faithful. But this creates, friends, a theological conundrum. If God, on one hand, has taken full responsibility for the fulfillment of the covenant, it is one hundred percent guaranteed, right? But if, on the other hand, Abram, Abraham, must walk worthy of the covenant in order to receive its blessings, then the covenant promises are one hundred percent doomed.
Because Abram here clearly falls short of the standard of being blameless, righteous, and just. How do you get out of this mess?
Well, the only way out is in a verse we read, Genesis fifteen, verse six, and he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Friends, God counted Abram. Unrighteous as he was, yet believing as righteous before him, God decided to overlook the gap to bestow His covenant upon Abram, who was undeserving—a covenant by grace through faith. And it's not like Abraham's kids did any better than he did. None of them came along and walked in blamelessness and righteousness and justice before the Lord.
Now, the rest of the Old Testament is a long line of people with good intentions and failed execution. There is no one righteous, no not one. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
That is until Jesus. Until Jesus, this Son of Abraham, this Son of the Covenant, promises who comes upon the scene. And is blameless in all of his ways, righteous before his God, just in all of his dealings. And for the first time ever, friends, a son of Abraham lived up to the stipulations of the covenant. And friends, Jesus alone is the truly worthy.
One, He alone is truly worthy of the covenant. Don't you see how Jesus is the solution to the theological conundrum we saw in the Old Testament? This this covenant was guaranteed by God, but it must be upheld by man, and so God must do it, and man must do it. And along comes Jesus, who is both God and man. Do you see the brilliance of this?
Jesus, as the God-Man, who keeps both sides of the covenant, comes along and upholds God's guarantee and fulfills Abraham. Obligations. The reason, friends, Abraham sleeps as the covenant is cut in Genesis fifteen, is not because Abraham is not party to the terms of the covenant, but because his side of the covenant will be fulfilled by someone else as he is sleeping. Two thousand years later. As Abraham sleeps in death, another son of Abraham will come and will fulfill the terms of the covenant.
Friends, he will be torn apart for the covenant failures of his people, and he will rise again in resurrection to secure all the covenant blessings that are due his name. He will cover the gap. He will bestow a covenant on undeserving people by grace to unrighteous yet believing people by faith. Jesus alone is the truly worthy recipient of the covenant.
Now, third question: Who inherits the covenant? Who inherits the covenant?
Now, what is very clear from the passages that we've read in Genesis is that God's intention is that these covenant blessings would be inherited by Abraham and his descendants. In chapter twelve, he said, "I will bless you and make you into a great nation." In chapter fifteen, he said, "Look to the heavens; so shall your offspring be like the stars." In chapter twenty-two, he said, "I will bless you and multiply your offspring." So the intentions of God are for Abraham and his children to inherit these promises. But all along, we also saw something else. We saw that God's intentions are that these covenant blessings would somehow cascade to the nations. In chapter twelve, he said, "All the families of the earth will be blessed in you." In chapter twenty-two, he said, "In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be." Blessed, but there's no real explanation as to how this will happen.
Chapter 17, verse 4, though, gives us a hint. An interesting verse here: "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations." Abraham, my covenant is with you.
Okay, but you and your children. But you will be the father of a multitude of nations, plural.
Now, this is interesting because genetically, Abraham can only be the father of one covenant nation, right? Through his son Isaac, his only son. This is the son of the covenant. There is only one line. And yet, somehow, the language here says he will be the father of a multitude of nations.
Many nations will look to Abraham as their father.
Well, what's that all about?
Well, let's fast forward to Galatians chapter three. Let's fast forward to Galatians chapter three. Paul is writing. Here about Gentiles, non-Jewish people, the nations, if you will, who have come to place their faith in Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter three, verse seven.
Know then that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed, along with Abraham, the man of faith. Skip down to verse thirteen. Christ redeemed us, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise Spirit through faith. Verse twenty-eight: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free.
There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
Now, this is very interesting. Listen, how did Abraham receive the blessings of the covenant? How did he get them? By grace, through faith, credited with the righteousness of someone other than himself. How do the Gentiles receive the blessings of the covenant?
As Paul writes here, by grace, through faith, credited with the righteousness that belongs to someone else—that's not their own. Here is Paul's logic: There is only one worthy son of Abraham. And that is Jesus. There is only one true inheritor of the covenant, and it is Jesus. And everyone else, including Abraham, father Abraham, inherits the covenant blessings by grace through faith, credited with a righteousness that is not their own—the righteousness of Christ Himself.
So that the Lord Jesus Christ, here, friends, is the only true and worthy inheritor of the covenant promises, and all who call upon the name of the Lord are not only saved but also share in the promised covenant blessings that He bestows.
Now, the irony, of course. Is that historically what happens? Is that the Gentiles embrace Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and receive the covenant blessings ahead of the Jewish people, who in general rejected Jesus. And this creates an unexpected moment in history: Gentiles receiving the covenant blessings of Abraham before the Jewish people do. What's going on?
That's why Paul writes in Romans chapter nine, verses six to eight, these words. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as offspring. Paul says, "Look, Abraham's true legacy lies not in following after his DNA and genetic material." But in following after his faith in God, in the promises of God, it is those who believe in God and His saving work who are children of the promise.
Paul goes on in Romans chapter eleven to explain that the Gentiles being included in the covenant blessings of God does not mean that God is finished with Israel. In fact, he says, one day all of Israel will be saved as they turn and embrace Jesus as their Messiah.
So that Abraham, in the end, is father not only of Israel, but is father of a multitude of nations, a great multitude that no one can number. From every nation and all tribes and peoples and languages, who by grace through faith credited with a righteousness that is not their own, a righteousness that belongs to Jesus, have now come into the covenant blessings of God. And friends, Jesus and all those who are in Him. Are beneficiaries of the covenant. Jesus and all those who are in Him are beneficiaries of the covenant.
Do you realize what this means for you and for me? It means that in Christ, God is one hundred percent for us. He is never against us. It means that He always moves with power on behalf of His people. That we are secure in the covenant love of God forever.
That there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Him we are chosen, we are adopted, we are rescued, we are redeemed, we are forgiven and set free. We are justified freely by His grace. We are indwelt by His Holy Spirit. We are righteous in Christ alone.
We have Christ in us, the hope of glory. We are loved to the skies, crowned with glory and honor. We are inheritors of an eternal covenant and an eternal life and an eternal home—a new heavens and a new earth. We are at home forever in the everlasting love of our God. For who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come. Nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Friends, in Him, all the promises are yes and amen.
Yes and amen.
So, what's the takeaway for us, friends? We are far more sinful than we ever dared realize. Yet in Jesus Christ, we are far more loved than we could ever dare hope. We are far more sinful than we ever dared realize. Yet in Christ Jesus, we are far more loved than we ever dared hope.
Friends, this is the paradox of the gospel: that although we are unworthy, Unfaithful, undeserving sinners—no exceptions. In Jesus Christ, by faith, by grace, through faith, we are credited with a righteousness that is not our own—a righteousness that belongs to Jesus. And so we are loved to the skies, perfectly, infinitely, lavishly, incomprehensibly. And beloved, we are loved more than we know. We are loved more than we know, all because of the covenant keeper, all because of Jesus.
Nothing can separate you. From the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Amen. Let's pray, Father.
We thank you that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That we bring our unfaithfulness, our unstableness. Our brokenness, our guilt, our shame, our nothingness—we bring it all, and yet in Christ we are covered. We are righteous, credited with righteousness not our own. We have received a covenant we don't deserve.
We stand in love we do not merit. We rest in grace. Father, thank you for justifying us freely by grace through faith in Christ alone. He is our only hope, and in Him we have everything and more. Forever, we rejoice today in Jesus' name.
Amen. Our benediction for today comes from Revelation chapter five. I'm going to read a selection of verses here, starting in verse nine. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you have ransomed people for God." From every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and glory and honor and might for ever and ever. And all God's people everywhere said, "Amen," and "Amen." On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller with a message looking back to the time of Moses and how he was holding out hope for the time of Jesus, the one who was the covenant keeper.
Next time, we see Moses as the law mediator. He held that role until the coming of another, the one who could truly and perfectly uphold the law, and that, of course, was Jesus. Our children need to know who Jesus is. Rebecca Lutzer has written a book with ten stories from the life of Jesus, and it's called One, Two, Three. Jesus Loves Me.
We'd like you and your kids to have this hardcover book as our thank you for your gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. For details, call one eight hundred two one five five zero zero one. That's one eight hundred two one five five zero zero one. Online, go to MoodyChurchHour dot com. That's MoodyChurchHour.com, or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614.
Ask about 123 Jesus Loves Me. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.
