Good evening. It's good everybody's
settled in, quiet, ready to worship. We still have about a minute
till our online people are ready, but let's go ahead and start.
Let's open this evening's service with hymn number 36 in the hardback
timinal. Hymn number 36, a mighty fortress
is our God. Let's all stand together. you A mighty fortress is our God,
a bold work never failing. Our helper He amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe, Dove
seek to work us woe, His craft and power are great, And armed
with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is he. Lord Sabbath is his name. From age to age the same. and he must win the battle. And though this world with devils
filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God
hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo,
his doom is sure. one little word shall fail him. That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them abideth. The Spirit and the gifts are
ours, through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, This
mortal life also, the body they may kill. God's truth abideth
still. His kingdom is forever. Please be seated. The right man is on our side. What a blessing. Let's open our
Bibles together to Isaiah chapter 49 for our call to worship. Isaiah 49. Just want to read
the first four verses of this chapter. Pray the Lord will give us ears.
To hear, listen, listen, listen. Oh Isles unto me. and hearken, ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from
the womb, and from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention
of my name. Can this not be understood as
anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ speaking? And he
hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his right
hand hath he hid me, And made me a polished shaft in his quiver
hath he hid me. And said unto me, Thou art my
servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I
have labored in vain. I've spent my strength for naught
and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work
with my God. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. Our Lord was hanging on Calvary's
cross. He could see nothing in his circumstances that gave him
any hope. that the work he was doing was
of any benefit to anybody. He couldn't see it in the circumstances,
but he saw it through the eyes of faith and believed God. I've labored in vain, spent my
strength for naught, yet surely my judgments with the Lord. Isn't that our experience oftentimes?
We look at our circumstances, we think it's all for naught.
And then the Lord enables us, at times like this, to look to
Him and realize that we have peace and prosperity. Peace and prosperity. Let's pray
together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
how we hope and pray that You would be pleased this hour bless
your word with your spirit, and give us eyes to see beyond our
circumstances. Give us the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To believe, Lord, that you are
working all things together after the counsel of thy own will and
for the profit and good of thy people. Lord, we pray that you
would give us rest in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
and what great hope we have in knowing that he was faithful.
Even when he could see no benefits, he believed you. And Lord, you
rewarded him with the people for whom he died. Oh, how we
pray that you would confirm to our hearts that we are of those
people. Give us hope in Christ. Forgive
us, Lord, for all the many times that we set our affections on
things below, when we are caught up in the things of this world.
Lord, in this hour, open the windows of heaven and allow us
to see the Lord Jesus Christ seated at thy right hand, ever
living, to make intercession for us. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's stand together again. Number 352 from the hardback
teminal. 352, Jesus, lover of my soul. Let's all stand. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is I am all unrighteousness, false
and full of sin I am, thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me again to Isaiah chapter 48? Isaiah chapter 48. Michael, would you mind closing
those doors, please? Thank you. You can hear a lying
child out there. When the Lord gives us the mind
of Christ, He causes us to believe him, to love the things that
he loves and to hate the things that he hates. He changes our
whole value system. And yet in so doing, he lets
us remain in the body of this old man who is so attached to
the things of this world. And we find ourselves in conflict
with ourselves, don't we? The spirit wars against the flesh
the flesh against the spirit so that we cannot be what we
would be Now that having been said We're not schizophrenic
I've heard believers say well, you know, I was just in the flesh No what we do we do it as a whole
man we do it in our with our new man or old man we're We're
accountable to God. When God speaks, he doesn't speak
to the flesh or to the spirit. He speaks to us. He speaks to
the man. And everything we do, we do as
a whole person. Now, every time we, everything
we do in this world, we have the old man with us, don't we?
Before we look at this passage of scripture, turn with me to
1 John 1. First John chapter one. Verse five. This then is the
message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. The light of
the gospel shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and
reveals the glory of Christ, the accomplished work of Christ,
reveals to us the true nature of God, reveals to us our true
nature and our absolute total dependence upon Him for all of
our righteousness and all of our justification before God.
He's talking about the gospel. This is the light that shines
out of a dark place. And just like when the Lord said,
let there be light in creation, so he says, let there be light
in the new creation. And when that light comes, we
see God for who he is, we see ourselves for what we are, and
we understand how it is that God remits our sin and is pleased
to save sinners through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the light. That's the light. And so he says,
in him there's no darkness at all. Now if we say that we have
fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie. And we do
not the truth. Now, if that means that if we,
like most people think this means, that if we say we have fellowship
with God, but we commit a sin, We live in sin. Paul said the
law is holy, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Everything I
do is infected with my sin. I can't perform a holy act without
my old sinful nature being with me. He's not saying if you say
that you're a Christian, but you do something evil, then you're
a liar. No, he's saying that if you say
you have fellowship with God, but you don't believe the gospel,
you don't believe the light of the gospel, you don't believe
what God has revealed about himself and about you and about sin and
about salvation, then you don't know the truth. There's a whole
lot of folks like that. They say, well, I know God, but
they don't believe the gospel. They're lying. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all
sins. All our sin, past, present, future,
sins of omission, sins of commission, everything. The blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us of all of our sin. We have the light of the gospel, We have the light of the gospel.
Not just the new man, the old man, we as a person have the
light of the gospel. And yet we bear that old man,
that old nature. And we have the hope of knowing
that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sin. I can't stand up here and preach
to you without sinning. You can't sit there and listen
to the gospel without sinning. Sin is everything that falls
short of the glory of God. And the only thing that we have
that measures up to the glory of God is the new man, the new
nature. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that, well, I don't
have a sin nature, you don't know yourself. The light of the
gospel hasn't shined in your heart. You don't know the truth
if you deny the fact that you have a sin nature. This first
reference is to sin as a noun. It's what we are. Remember, a
noun is a person, place, or thing. Sin is the thing that we are,
all right? And so he says, if you say that
you have no sin, then the light of the gospel hasn't shined in
your heart. You have no fellowship with God. But if we confess our sins, if
we agree with God, that's what that word confess means. Take
sides with God against yourself. If you agree with God that you're
a sinner, And he's faithful. You have the hope of knowing
that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses you of all your
sin. It's been put away. God remembers
it no more. He separated it from you as far
as the East is from the West. We can't speak, we can't think,
we can't act without sin, can we? And if we say, well, I've
done one thing that was sinless, we're lying. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all
unrighteousness. All of our unrighteousness is
put away, covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgotten
by God, satisfied before God. It's just all. If we say that we have not sinned,
there's the verb. Say, well, you know, I did something
that was holy. I did something that didn't have
any sin in it. If you say that, you're a liar. The truth is not in you and His
Word is not in you. The Word of the Gospel has never
been revealed to you. So, this is the conflict that
every believer has, isn't it? We didn't know we had an old
man until we got the new man. We didn't have a war within us
between our old man and our new man until the Lord gave us a
new nature, until He caused us. And yet He calms that war with
the peace of His grace when He causes us to cast our care upon
Him, for He careth for us. To trust Him for all our righteousness
and all our justification before God. Now I've titled, go back
with me to Isaiah 47, because I want to, uh, 48. I wanted to
read that. I've titled this Peace and Prosperity. Most folks would define peace
as the absence of conflict. You know, I've got, I've got
peace with my family and peace with my co-workers and everything's
good and nobody's at war and that's, that's peace. Believers have a whole different
understanding of peace, don't we? We have a conflict that other
men don't have. We've got an old nature. We've
got a sinful nature that other people don't even acknowledge.
They don't even see it. They think because they've never
heard the gospel, they've never believed God, they think they're
actually able to do things without sinning. And we know we can't. And so we're constantly driven
by that old man to seek the Lord, aren't we? This matter of having
peace is not the same kind of peace that men talk about. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. My peace I leave you, my peace
I give unto you, not as the world giveth, This isn't just the absence
of conflict. More times than not, when the
Lord's pleased to save a sinner, their conflict increases in every
way. We don't have peace with ourselves
because we're a contradiction to ourselves. We're not schizophrenic,
but we're a contradiction to ourselves. We don't, we don't
excuse our sin. We don't say, well, you know,
I don't know much about schizophrenia, but I know that, you know, people
get into a different personality and that one personality doesn't
have anything to do with the other personality. And they just
go back and forth. Don't, don't think that the two natures like
that. Every step we take, every word we speak, every thought
we have is infected with our sin. If we say that we have no
sin, the truth is not in us. And that's our conflict, isn't
it? And yet that conflict leads us
to find comfort in the finished work and accomplished redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this piece that, look at the
last verse of Isaiah chapter 48. There is no peace, saith
the Lord, to the wicked. Now don't, that word wicked just
means unbeliever. You know, I want to do what's right. I
want to honor God with my life. I don't want to be a shame to
Him and shame His name. But you know, at the end of the
day, there's just not a whole lot of difference between a believer
and unbeliever as far as their life is concerned. There's not. Matter of fact, I know some unbelievers
that hate the gospel. Outwardly moral successful raise
their children to be respectful The the picture of of success
and morality in this world would never would never Do the things
that you know way so you don't you don't measure? Your your
relationship with God by looking at your life and your family
do you You know, the things that people
do that are shameful, a lot of folks quit doing things that
aren't believers. There is no peace, saith the
Lord, to the wicked. He's not talking about people
that are just living immoral lives. He's talking about unbelievers. Here's the difference between
the believer and the unbeliever, isn't there? The unbeliever is
looking to the absence of conflict in their life and the covenant
that they have made, which God says he's going to disannul,
as the hope of their peace. The believer, on the other hand,
is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all their peace before
God. That's the only difference. There's no peace, saith the Lord,
to the wicked. There's no peace for the child
of God within himself. There's no peace for the child
of God in this world. The world doesn't offer us peace.
We get caught up in it, don't we? We oftentimes think like an unbeliever
when it comes to peace, don't we? We start comparing ourselves
to other folks and start thinking that peace and prosperity has
to do with the bottom line of your bank account and what you
possess in this world. And the Lord has to remind us. He has to remind us. that what
the world is offering is deceitful. The Lord calls it the deceitfulness
of riches, doesn't he? That's not prosperity. Not prosperity. But that's where the world is.
Notice in our text, look in verse 15 of chapter 48. Even I have spoken. Yea, I've
called him. I have brought him and he shall
make his way prosperous Look in verse 17 thus saith the Lord
thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel I am the Lord thy God
which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth to thee by the
way, which thou shall go and then the last verse there is
no peace saith the Lord to the wicked and What the Lord is doing
is he's speaking to Israel and he's telling us where true peace
and true prosperity really is. I want to have God's estimation
of peace and prosperity, don't you? It's just so hopeless to
get to thinking like the world thinks. and to evaluating and
measuring peace and prosperity by the standards of the world.
Lord, cause me to hear what you have to say about true peace
and true prosperity. Look at verse 12. This is where it starts. The
Lord said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world. I've overcome the
world. I've defeated the world. And
if you're in me, you've overcome the world. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which leadeth unto everlasting
life. labor to enter into his rest.
Know what scripture says in Hebrews chapter 4? Oh Lord, I need to
be reminded of this. I work around, you know, we get
to thinking like the people we're around, don't we? And the Lord
has to remind us of what the truth is. And so here's what
he says in verse 12. Hearken unto me, O Jacob and
Israel. Hey, he's not when God speaks. He speaks to you. He speaks to
me. He doesn't speak to our old man
or our new man You know, we've got we've got two natures one
of them is nothing but sin the other one's nothing but righteousness
before God But how do you divide those two natures? You don't
God speaks to you. He speaks to me We understand
the spiritual divide between those two natures But as far
as the practical divide is concerned, how do you divide those two natures
in your experience of living in this world? And so the Lord
says, hearken unto me, Jacob, Israel. I'm speaking to you as
a whole person. You're not, you're not gonna
be, Crazy person who's schizophrenic doing one thing in the flesh
and nothing in the spirit You're gonna walk in the spirit. You're
gonna walk in the light if you know the gospel, you know walk
in the light But every step you take you're going to be Confronted
with that old man. You're never gonna be able to
get away from him And and and that conflict is gonna cause
you to look to Christ for all your comfort and The blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses you from all your sin. All your
sin. My cult. My cult. Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you have
not received? Why do you have a new nature? Why is it that
you have a different value system? Why is it that you see things
different from everybody else in this world? Why is it you're
so different? Because I've called you out of
darkness into my marvelous light. I've revealed the truth of the
gospel to you. I've made you to differ. And so you're the one I'm speaking
to. Jacob, Israel, my called. I am He. I'm the first and I'm
the last. I'm the Alpha and the Omega of
the Omega. I'm the one who was slain in the covenant of grace
before the world began. I'm the one who entered into
a covenant with my father when he chose you according to his
own will and purpose. I'm the one who worked out your
redemption. I'm the one that satisfied all
the demands of God's law. I'm the one that put away your
sin. I'm the one that called you. I'm the one who will keep
you, and I'm the one who will present you faultless. Salvation's
of the Lord, I'm gonna do it all. You're not gonna squeeze
one letter in between A and Z, or between the alpha and the
omega. I'm gonna do it all. I'll not share, remember verse
11? I will not give my glory unto
another. Look at verse 13. My hand hath also laid the foundation
of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens. When
I call unto them, they stand up together. When I tell the
sun to rise in the east, it rises. When I tell that worm to crawl
on the ground, it crawls. When I speak to that blade of
grass and tell it to grow, it grows. The world, the natural
world that I have created and that I sustain does exactly what
I tell it to do. What about you? Oh, so the Lord's saying to his
children, hearken unto me. I've got so much more for you
than I've got for the, you know, the birds of the air. Consider
the birds of the air. They don't spin. They don't fret. God knows them, provides for
them. Consider the lilies of the field.
That's what the Lord's saying here. Solomon in all of his glory
was not arrayed as one of these. Does not your heavenly Father
love you more? So the Lord's saying, when I
speak to my creation, it obeys me. And I've got so much more for
you than I have for them. Hear me, listen to what I say. All ye, all ye, every one of
you, all who, all the called, all Jacobs and all Israel, all
ye, assemble yourselves and hear, which among them hath declared
these things? Where else are you going to hear the word of
God? You know, our world is full of talking heads, isn't it? Our
world is full of opinions and man's feelings about things and
ideas and God saying, where's she gonna go to hear what I've
got to tell you? No place, no place. The Lord hath loved him. Who? Israel, Jacob. Why? For Christ's sake. As God
has loved Christ, so he has loved his children. There's no difference. No difference. He will do his pleasure. Notice
that little word, on. He does his pleasure in Israel. He does his pleasure on Babylon. I want the pleasure of God to
be done in me, not on me, don't you? The wrath of God is what's
done on a man. And all you gotta do is go to
Revelation and see Babylon hath fallen. That great mystery Babylon, a
great harlot, the ones who didn't believe the gospel. God has exercised
his judgment on Babylon. Oh, Lord, don't. Put. Put my judgment on Christ. On Christ. and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. I, even I have spoken, yea, I
have called him, I have brought him, and he shall make his way
prosperous." How was the way of the Lord Jesus
Christ made prosperous? It was made prosperous in that
he believed God. It was made prosperous in that
he got the victory over death and sin and hell. It was made
prosperous in that he successfully redeemed his bride. It was made prosperous in that
he satisfied all the demands of God's law. It was made prosperous
in that he put away our sin. This is God's prosperity. This is where everything else
is just vanity, isn't it? The things that men call prosperity,
what are they going to end up as? He was made prosperous in that
he fulfilled all of God's divine justice perfectly. Perfectly. God's not satisfied with partial
justice. And you know how you know that
you've heard the gospel? You're not satisfied with partial
justice. You see, if you've been given
the mind of Christ, then you think like God thinks about these
things, about the gospel, don't you? You're not satisfied with
partial justice, are you? I don't want God to take care
of most of my sin. I want him to take care of all
my sin. Past, present, and future. God's
got to be justified. And the only way that's going
to happen is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He fulfilled all prophecy. The scripture says that the testimony
of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. He fulfilled all
the promises of God. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ. I've made His way prosperous. When God says something's prosperous,
it's prosperous. He's not measuring it by the
things the world measures prosperity by, is He? Come ye near unto me. Look at
verse 16, come ye near unto me. How many times the Lord speaks
to Jacob, Israel, his call, and what's he say? Come, just come. How do I come? Just come just
like you are, just like you are. You're not gonna clean up your
act before you come. You're not gonna get your, you're
not gonna, Get yourself in a position where you're sinless before you
come. You ought to come just like you are, just as I am, without
one plea, but that thy blood was shed for thee. Lord, I come. I don't know any other way to
come. Come ye near unto me. Hear ye this. I've not spoken
in secret from the beginning. Now, the natural man, it's a
mystery to him. It's a secret to him. He hasn't
understood it, but it's not because the Lord hasn't spoken. It's because he hasn't heard.
God's spoken from the beginning. These things have been revealed
from the very beginning. from when sin first entered into
the human experience. God said, the seed of the woman
will crush the head of the serpent. He's going to get the victory.
I'm going to save my people. I've not spoken in secret from
the beginning, from the time that it was. There am I, and
now the Lord God and His Spirit have helped me. The Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking. He's saying, the Father sent
me. How did He send me? He sent me as the Christ, the
Anointed One. And the Spirit of God was with
me. And provided for me everything I needed in order to be prosperous
in what God sent me to do. What did God send the Lord Jesus
Christ to do? To save His people. All Israel. Did he prosper? He's telling
us right here. God the Father sent me, the Spirit
of God enabled me, and I was prosperous in what God sent me
to do. I saved every one of God's people.
I did everything necessary. Everything. There was nothing
left for them to do. I did it all. Thus saith the
Lord thy Redeemer. The high Redeemer I've redeemed
you I've bought you back. That's what that word redemption
means You like the landowner, the Israelite, who got in debt,
and he had to sell his property, and then he had to sell himself
into slavery, and then the year of Jubilee came, and all the
land returned back to its original owners, and all the debt was
paid, and all the slaves were set free. You like that Egyptian? Remember Joseph in Egypt? When
the plagues came for those seven years of drought, by the end
of the seven years of drought, who owned everything? I mean
everything, not just the cattle and the land, but the people. They sold their property, then
they sold their cattle, and then they sold themselves. So by the
end of the seven years, everybody belonged to Pharaoh. Now Pharaoh
is a picture of God in that picture, isn't he? And Joseph's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ who had the keys to the storehouse.
And by the end of the drought, everything belongs to him. And
here the Lord says, I've bought you back. I've redeemed you. The Holy One of Israel. The only one that's holy. What is the opposite of sin?
What's the opposite of sin? Holiness. Holiness. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the
only one is holy. And the only way I'm gonna be
holy before God is if he stands in my stead, speaks on my behalf,
presents himself for my righteousness, makes me accepted in him. He's the Holy One of Israel.
I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit. You like profiting? You know,
we make investments to get a profit, don't we? The Lord said, I'm
going to teach you to profit. This is real profit. You're going to have my righteousness.
You're going to have the light of the gospel. You're going to
have the hope of salvation. You're going to have peace with
God. This is the real prophet. You're going to have your sin
put away. You're going to have the condemning
voice of the law silenced against you. There's your real prophet. I'm going to teach you to prophet.
I'm going to teach you the gospel. They shall be all taught of God. Father, I thank thee that thou
has hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes. Even so, it seemed good in thy
sight. Lord, the Lord, I'm gonna teach
you to profit. What does the Lord say in Matthew chapter 11? Come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy laden. Learn of me. I'm going to teach you about
who I am. I'm going to teach you about
what I've done. I'm going to show you that I'm the Holy One
of Israel and I'm your Lord, your God, your Redeemer. I bought
you. You're mine. You've been bought
with a price. The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has
been shed. You're not your own. The Holy One of Israel, I am
the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth
thee by the way that thou shouldest go. Now the self-righteous religionist
is going to read this and they're going to say, well, you know,
God's going to show me how to live my life. Yeah, He will.
He's going to show you that Christ is the way. He's the truth. He's the life. You know, they're
measuring everything by outward behavior and circumstances, aren't
they? That's what we did. We just thought, well, this is...
When the Lord shows you the way, He shows you Christ. That's why
the Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm
not going to show you the way. I'm not going to teach you the
truth. I'm not going to just give you
life. I am your life. I am the truth, and I am the
way. For this cause was I born, and
for this reason came I into the world, to bear testimony or witness
unto the truth. He was testifying to himself. Oh, verse 18, that thou hast
hearkened to my commandments. Then had thy peace been as a
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea, thy
seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels
like the gravel thereof, his name should not have been cut
off nor destroyed from before thee. Now what the Lord's saying is,
He's speaking to Israel, the reason you're in Babylon is because
of sin. And all of our experiences in this world are because of
our sin, aren't they? Aren't they? But what is the judgment of God
in the believer's life? Let me rephrase that. What is
the chastisement of the Father to the believer when it comes
to his sin? You know, every one of us, something
bad happens, our mind just goes to, well, what's the Lord doing
this for? Why is he punishing me? Now, all our sin's been punished
in Christ. It's all been put away. But when we do sin, What does
the Lord, when we disobey the Lord, what does He do? What does
He do? Here it is, it's right here in
verse, the latter part of verse 19. His name should not have
been cut off nor destroyed from before me. The greatest chastisement that
the Lord gives to his children is to withdraw the awareness
of his presence. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. But that's a little comfort to
me if I feel as if the Lord has forsaken me, doesn't it? So the Lord's saying all these
problems are because of sin and it's your sin that causes you
to to experience this loss, this lack of comfort, this lack of
hope. And what's the Lord do? Why does he do that? Oh, you remember in the Song
of Solomon when the Lord put his hand in the lock of the door
and his bride refused to get out of bed? And so he departed. He departed. He left her. And
she smelled the aroma of his presence. What'd she do? She
got up. She went out. Where's my beloved? And she started
looking for him, didn't she? Knock and it shall be opened. Seek and you shall find. What
is it that causes us to knock? What is it that causes us to
seek? What is it that causes us to look for him? It's the withdrawal. of his presence, isn't it? What
does that come as a result of? It becomes as a result of our
sin. That's all the Lord's saying here. Verse 20, go ye forth of Babylon. Come ye out from among her and
be separate, saith the Lord. don't have anything to do with
that Babylonish religion. It's just Babel, isn't it? It's man-centered, Christ-denying,
Go ye forth of Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, and with
the voice of singing, declare ye and tell this, utter it even
to the ends of the earth, say ye that the Lord hath redeemed
his servant Jacob. Now what does Babylon say? Babylon
says the Lord will redeem you if you'll do your part. You'll
make a decision, you'll perform a work, you'll learn some doctrine,
whatever. You're going to have something
to do in religion, aren't you? What do we say? We come out of
Babylon and we sing. And we declare to the whole world,
the Lord hath redeemed Israel. All of Jacob, when he shed his
precious blood on Calvary's cross, Everybody he died for was saved.
Justified before God. Accepted in the presence of God. Their sin were put away. Declare
that with singing. Rejoice in the Lord. And again,
I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known
to all men. Why? Because the Lord is at hand. And they thirsted not. They thirsted
not when he led them through the deserts? Why did they not thirst? Because
he caused the water to flow out of the rock for them, he claved
the rock also, and the waters gushed out. Now that rock that
followed them, Paul makes it clear in Galatians, was Christ.
And what happened to the rock? Every time they would move to
a new camp, well there's that same rock. And the water's coming
out of the rock. Why? Because Moses, a picture
of the law, took his rod and smote the rock. And that's exactly
what God did on Calvary's cross. For your sins and for my sins,
the law had to be satisfied. And the law smote the Lord Jesus
Christ. And out of him flows rivers of
living water. He said, so when we're in the
desert, The Lord told that woman at the well, you drink of this
water, you'll not come to this well again. You'll not be looking
to the world for your sustenance. You'll keep coming to Christ,
knowing that he was smitten for your offenses, bruised and afflicted
for your sin. And all your sins have been put
away. You've got peace with God. You've got true prosperity. Why? Because he prospered and he taught
you the gospel. He taught you how to prosper. There's no peace. There's no
peace. There is no peace, saith the
Lord to the unbeliever. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for reminding us once again of what you consider to be peace
and prosperity. And Lord, we confess to you that
we find ourselves so often looking to the world for what only you
can offer, what you can give, what you can provide. We ask
now, Lord, that you, Holy Spirit, would keep us mindful of what
you have said. Give us ears to hear. Lord, you
said, hearken unto me. We pray that you would enable
us to do just that, or we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 13, let's stand together. We'll sing this hymn to the tune,
What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and we'll skip the refrain. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature, Long the distance that he fell, Far removed from hope
and heaven, Into deep despair and hell. But there was a fountain
opened, and the blood of God's own Son purifies the soul and
reaches deeper than the stain has gone. Conscience of the deep
pollution, sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear to face the light. This the blessed consolation
that can melt the heart of stone. That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. All unworthy we who've wandered
And our eyes are wet with tears As we think of love that sought
us Through the weary, wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway,
walking by God's grace alone, knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. When with holy choirs we're standing
In the presence of the King And our souls are lost in wonder
While the white-robed choirs sing Then we'll praise the name
of Jesus with the millions round the throne. Praise him for the power that
reaches deeper than the stain has gone.