Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 186 from the Hardback Temple, the
Church's One Foundation. Let's all stand together. 186. Oh. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven He came and sought
her to be His holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. He lacked from every nation,
are all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. And to one hope she presses With
every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three and one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is won. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles to Isaiah 45. Isaiah chapter 45. Texted back and forth with Michael.
Well, we had a couple of missed calls and texts, but he's doing
well and funeral services went well. He's coming home Friday
or Saturday? Saturday, Saturday. We'll begin reading verse 20
in Isaiah 45 Assemble yourselves You made an effort to get here,
didn't you? That's that's what it means to assemble yourselves
and come draw near together Ye that are escaped of the nations
and They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven
image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Our God cannot save. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from the ancient times? This has always
been the story. The Lord is the one that declared
it from the ancient times. who hath told it from that time.
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else besides
me, a just God and a Savior. How can God be just, punishing
sin, and save sinners? Only if he puts that punishment
on one who hasn't sinned. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto
me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear, Surely
shall one say, in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. Even
to him shall men come, and all that are incensed against him
shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all, all, all
the seed of Israel be justified, and in the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel glory. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're so thankful that you have worked in us, causing us to will
and to do after thy good pleasure. You're the one who put it in
our hearts to want to be here tonight. You're the one that
caused us to assemble ourselves together and to come. And Father,
we come now before your throne of grace, and we ask you that
for Christ's sake, you would open the windows of heaven. We
pray that you would reveal more of his glory to our hearts. We
pray that you would increase our faith. We pray, Lord, that
you would cause us to find hope and comfort and peace in knowing
that our sin has been put away and your righteousness has been
satisfied, been fulfilled, your justice have been satisfied. Oh Lord, enable us to set our
affections on Christ. The one seated at thy right hand,
the one who did not return unto you void, but brought with him
the names of those for whom he lived and died. We thank you, Lord, for your
grace and for your mercy. And we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 23 from your gospel hymn spiral hymn
book. Hymn number 23, Pass Me Not. 2A 3.30 x (-0.50') Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, blood
of God Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior,
let me hear your gracious call. I'm a guilty, helpless sinner,
Savior, at your feet I fall. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit. You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving power. Give me faith and make me live. Love of God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, a poor lost sinner. If you will, you can save me. Reach down with your hand of
mercy, saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so everlasting,
Blood of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles again, please, to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45. Verse 2. I will go before thee and make
the crooked places straight. I've titled this message, Hope
for the Crooked. I started to call it Hope for
Crooks, which is really what it is. We wouldn't refer to one
another as crooks in our relationships with one another, or with any
man for that matter, I hope not. But before God, by nature, we're
crooks. We rob him of his glory. We,
we, we, we, our ways are crooked. Our thoughts are crooked. And,
uh, until he makes that which is crooked straight, uh, we're
just going to remain crooks before God. Listen to what Moses said. And
I, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, he is the rock. His work is perfect. He's the straight one. He's the
perfect one. All His ways are judgment. A
God of truth and without iniquity, just and right are His ways. They, now remember Moses speaking,
that's the law. So the law is looking at us and
the law is saying they have corrupted themselves. They are a perverse
and crooked generation. Now I was at Home Depot this
week with a friend of mine and we needed 30 two by fours. And I had to show him how to
pick out two-by-fours. He had never done that before.
So I picked up a two-by-four. First one I looked at, sure enough.
I had him run his eye down. I said, you see anything wrong
with that board? He said, no, not really. So I found a straight
one. I put the straight one there.
I said, oh yeah, I see the difference now. See, I need 30 just like
that one. I don't want any crooked ones.
He couldn't discern the difference between a crooked board and a
straight board until he put them together. And that's the way
it is. Man looks at himself and he says,
well, I look like everybody else. I bet you we went through eighty
two by fours in order to get thirty straight ones. Man looks
at himself and he thinks, well, I look like everybody else. Oh,
you put him next to that straight board. He finds out how crooked
he is. is the rock. He is perfect. Just and right are his ways. And when the law looks at us,
he says they're perverse. They're crooked. And then Solomon
said in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 15, that which is crooked
cannot be made straight. We can't straighten ourselves
out. You get a twisted two-by-four, you're just not going to be able
to straighten it out. It's not going to work. And Solomon said
that the crooked cannot straighten themselves out. And then he goes
on in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 13, says, Consider the work of God,
who can make that straight which hath been crooked. So the Lord
is the only one that can make us straight. Man can't straighten
himself out. Man, when put aside the law of
God, and that law is a perfect picture, a perfect representation
of the one who came to fulfill the law. the Lord Jesus Christ. The law was never given to us
as a means by which we are to measure our lives. The law was
given to us in order to portray for us the perfect one that's
straight. And we can't straighten ourselves
out, but if we consider the work of Him, consider the work of
Him, The one who fulfilled the law, the one who is able to make
that which is perverse and that which is crooked straight. Then
we'll find some hope in this passage of scripture. Turn with
me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Verse 13, for it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It's the Lord
that gives us a desire for Christ, and it's the Lord that gives
us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he doesn't
work in us, we're just gonna remain crooked. Do all things without murmuring
and disputing that you may be blameless and harmless, the son
of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation among whom you shine as lights in this world. We're pointing to Christ. We're
shining as a light in the world. And exposing all the crooked
two-by-fours that there are. We live in a crooked and perverse
world. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one that's straight, and we point to Him, and we say,
our straightness before God, our righteousness before God
is in Him. Now turn back with me to our
text. We saw Sunday that Cyrus is a
type of Christ. He's the possessor of the furnace. He's the anointed one. He's the
one who has opened the two leaved gates and called for his people
to come in. He's the one who went before
us as the forerunner. He's the one that rent the veil,
that's his flesh, on Calvary's cross. He's the one who spilt
his blood on the mercy seat. He's the one in whom we see the
fullness of the glory of God manifested. That smoky Shekinah
glory that the Lord manifested Himself in the Old Testament
was but a picture of the fullness of the glory of God seen in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And now the Spirit and the Bride,
what do they say? Come, come, come into His presence
for mercy and for grace. You're a crooked, perverse generation. You're just a bunch of crooks.
You're born into this world crooked. You've sought to rob God of His
glory at every turn. And you're still just wandering
people, aren't you? You need one who stands straight
before God. God's going through the woodpile.
He's picking out the straight ones. He's not going to have
any crooked Crooked studs in his house not gonna have any So Cyrus now Representing the
Lord Jesus Christ has opened up the doors to heaven and God
says I will go before thee verse 2 Isaiah 45 I will go before
thee and make the crooked places straight The Lord has to humble
the proud That's how he makes the crooked places straight He
has to lift up those that have been cast down by their sin.
That's the way he makes the crooked places straight. He has to change
our thinking. We've got crooked thinking. Oh,
we still think crooked, don't we? We still get ideas creeping
into our minds that God's love for us is determined by our behavior. That's just crooked thinking.
Repentance You know, people say, well, you know, you just need
to repent of your sin. As if, as if you're going to
come to this place where you're going to stop sinning. Repentance is having a changed
mind. About who God is. About who we
are. About how it is that God remits
our sin. It's a complete... We have by nature a crooked way
of thinking. And God has to make straight
that which is crooked. Turn with me over to Isaiah chapter
40. We have crooked thinking about
man's will, don't we? We think man's will is free.
We think, well, we're free moral agents, we can do what we want.
God has to change our crooked thinking, doesn't He? He has
to change our crooked thinking about our works. We think, well,
I can present God with something that He's going to be pleased
with. And when the Lord gives you a changed mind, you realize
that there's nothing you can present to God that's going to
satisfy His holy justice. You're dependent on Christ for
that. We he's got to make the crooked straight and in salvation. That's what he does You have
your Bibles open Isaiah chapter 40 look at verse 3 The voice
of him that crieth in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord
make straight in the desert a Highway for our God every valley shall
be exalted those that have been broken by the Spirit of God over
their sin and Those who have been brought to fear the wrath
of God and see the heavy burden of their sin that cannot be carried,
they've got to be delivered from that. They've got to be exalted. They've got to be made to see
that that brokenness is for the purpose of having hope in Christ. And that in Christ, they have
no sin. Christ they have nothing but
righteousness before God and so the Lord says Before before
the the Christ comes the Messiah. I'm gonna send a forerunner this
is a prophecy of John the Baptist and he's gonna go before him
and he's going to exalt the valleys and every mountain and Every
self-righteous mountain every proud look of man is going to
be made love Why because they're a bunch of
crooks they're just crooked people they've got to be changed and
The crooked shall be made straight It was a time when all our thinking
was just crooked thinking and We couldn't think straight about
anything. We couldn't think straight about God. We couldn't think
straight about ourselves. We couldn't think straight about
salvation. We couldn't think straight about
free will. We couldn't think straight about good works. We
couldn't think straight about the law. We just had perverse
and crooked thinking about everything. And the Lord said, I'm going
to make it straight. I'm going to give them some understanding.
How am I going to do it? I'm going to lay that straight board
down. They're gonna look to that board. They're gonna say there's
my straightness right there And the crooked shall be made
straight and the rough places plain and the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed His glory is going to be revealed in his straightness You can't make you can't make
straight that's which is crooked God said that and And all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Donnie asked a question Sunday
morning. I said, what's the proper way
to introduce a gospel message to God's people? What's the best
introduction that you could hear? Thus saith the Lord. If that
doesn't captivate your attention, If that doesn't cause your ears
to perk up and you to say, that's what I want to hear, what does
God have to say? The mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it. That's enough, isn't it? We don't have to entice, we don't
have to tickle men's ears or entice men's interest in anything
else. Just tell them this is what God
says. And here's what God says. Cyrus
has come. He's opened the two leaped gates.
And he's made the crooked straight. Now, are you by nature crooked? Is the hope of you being straight
before God in the one who is perfect? The one who's righteous? The one who's straight? The one
who's... You know, we still struggle in
our thinking, don't we? All right, go back with me to
Isaiah 45. Well, the prophets say, Lord,
turn me, turn me and I shall be turned. Make me to hear thy
voice. Make me to know wisdom. Lord,
I'm not going to, I'm not going to be able to do it. I can't
turn myself. I can't straighten myself out. Verse 2, Isaiah 45, I will go
before thee and make the crooked places straight. I will break
in pieces the gates of brass and cut asunder the bars of iron. Now, we know the two lead gates,
according to 1 Kings 6, in the picture of Solomon's temple,
the two lead gates were the entrance for the oracle of God, the Ark
of the Covenant. Christ came through those two
lead gates. and opened up the way for us to be able to enter
into glory. What are these iron gates? What are these brass gates? A picture of strength that he's
going to tear down. Over in Judges chapter 16, the
story is told of Samson. Samson's a type of Christ. He
was the strong man. Defeated the Philistines didn't
he and even in his death when they gouged out his eyes We see
a picture of Christ on the cross. Don't we not being able to see
the father? My you know, my God my God whilst
thou forsaken me and being chained to those pillars He pulled down
the strongholds of the enemy and and in that process he died
and defeated the enemy at the same time what a picture of Christ
but before that happened The scripture says that Samson went
down to the city of the Gazites. Now that's the same place of
Gaza where the Ethiopian eunuch met with Philip. And in that
city, these men hated Samson. And they said, let us wait here
at the gate of this city And in the morning, at daylight,
we'll kill him. And so, during that night, in
Judges chapter 16, during that night, while they were waiting
for the morning so they could kill Samson, Samson comes down,
takes the two gates of Gaza, which translated means strong,
and takes the two gates of Gaza, puts them on his back, while
these men are sleeping. Takes him off the hinges, puts
him on his back, carries him up on top of the mountain, and
when the sun comes up in the morning, Samson's on top of the
hill with the two gates of the city, and the men are waking
up rubbing their eyes, and Samson's mocking them. When the Lord asked Peter, whom
do you say that I am? What did Peter say? Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And what did the Lord say? Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. My Father which is in heaven, He straightened
out your thinking. He made the crooked straight.
He's the one who gave you that confession. And upon this rock,
the confession you just made that I am the Christ, the anointed
one. I will build my church. How am I going to build my church? The future members of my church
are behind some brass gates. They're behind some iron bars.
But I've come to set the prisoner free. And the gates of hell shall
not be able to prevail against it. So here's the question you
and I have to ask. Am I by nature crooked? Am I
a crook? Am I a thief? Would I rob God
of His glory? And am I bound by the very gates
of hell? Am I in need of a strong man
to come and take down those iron gates and come into the very
fiery pit of hell and deliver me? Is that me? That's what Christ came to do. That's what He came to do. And
God's people say, oh yes Lord, that's me. Oh, you came to set
the prisoner free. You came to bind up the brokenhearted. You came to make, lead, the scripture
says, captivity captive. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do. That's what Cyrus came to do. He came to lead captivity
captive. He came to tear down the gates
of hell and break in and deliver his people from the captivity
of sin. From the captivity of blindness. The captivity of unbelief. And make them captive to himself. Has he done that for you? Has
he made you captive to Christ? Lord, I'm completely dependent
upon you. And the more I grow in grace and the knowledge of
Christ, the more I see my dependence upon you. The more crooked I
realize I am. The more in bondage to sin I
see myself to be, Lord, I've got to be set free. I'm in need of you to come get
me again, and again, and again, and again. And that's what he
came to do. The word of the Lord has spoken
it. He came to tear down the iron gates, the brass gates,
and to set his people free. Oh, what a glorious Savior we
have. You know what the best illustration
of this in the New Testament is, don't you? Barabbas. Barabbas. Simon bar Jonah. Bar in the scripture means son
of. Simon was the son of Jonah. And Abba When the Spirit of God
comes, according to the scriptures in the book of Romans, the Spirit
of God causes us to cry, Abba, Father. It's a very intimate
term of relationship between a son and his father. And so
Bar-Abbas is a beautiful name, isn't it? The son of the father. And he's a picture of every child
of God. And the scripture says that he
was a murderer. He was a thief. He was an insurrectionist. He was a treasonous man. He deserved
to die. He deserved death. That middle
cross, there were three crosses that day. Those two thieves on
the right and the left of the Lord Jesus Christ, they were
partners of Barabbas. Barabbas was the ringleader. He was the one that was supposed
to go to that cross. His time had come. And however
brash and bold he might have been in all of his criminal activity,
I'm sure that he's shaking in his boots when he hears those
Roman soldiers coming down through the dungeon to get him out, thinking
this is it. This is it. He knew what crucifixion
was about. Unlock the door. Free to go. What do you mean I'm free? No,
you're free. Just get out of here. Go. How can it be? Someone else has
taken your place. The crowd cried, crucify him,
crucify him. Release unto us Barabbas. Oh, what beautiful substitution.
That's you and I. We're in prison. We're behind
those iron gates. We can't get out. We can't believe. We can't see. We can't do anything
for ourselves. Oh, one has taken our place.
He went to that cross in our stead. He suffered the punishment
that we deserved. and delivered us from the wrath
of God. I'm going to cut asunder the
bars of iron. In verse 3, and I will give thee
the treasures of darkness. What are the treasures of darkness?
Well, Isaiah chapter 53 tells us that after the father saw
the work that the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross,
that God saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied and divided
to him the spoils. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
man of war. He went against Satan. He went
against death. He stood up. To all the demands
of God's law, he's the man of war. And in the end, he's given the
spoils of war. What were the spoils of war?
It's his people. His people. Look at verse four. For Jacob, my servant, saken
Israel, my elect, I have called thee by thy name. I gave you
this is all this is all for the salvation of Jacob Jacob Israel
Jacob Israel, that's every one of us, isn't it? Jacob by nature
Israel by surname the supplanter the crook the crooked one the
perverse one the one who can't think straight and can't do right and the Prince of God The one
who's been called by his grace and given a new nature and given
hope and faith in another. His substitute who went to the
cross for him. I will give thee the treasures
of darkness. That's where we were. We were
in darkness. We're blind. We were blind. What the Lord say to, when the
crowd said to Bartimaeus, be of good cheer, the master calleth
thee, and Bartimaeus throws down his filthy robe, the only thing
he had, and he flees to the Lord, and what did the Lord say to
Bartimaeus? What would you have me to do
for you? And what did Bartimaeus say? Oh Lord, that I might see I can't
see. I can't see God. I can't see
the gospel. I can't see myself. I can't see
Christ in the scriptures. I can't see anything. Lord, I'm
a blind man. I need for you to open my eyes. And here's the hope, here's the
blessing, the promise of God, what he opens no man can shut. So when he opens the two lead
gates into heaven, no man can shut that. Everyone he opened
those gates for is coming through. When he tore down the brass bars
of iron, the brass gates and bars of iron of hell, everyone
held captive in that prison are coming out. He's gonna get them.
One by one, he's gonna go in and get them. And all those who are born blind,
We're going to see. And those who see, or think they
can see, for judgment came I into the world, is what the Lord said,
that they which see not might see, and they which see might
be made blind. And what did the Pharisees say?
Are you suggesting that we're blind? And the Lord said, if
you were blind, Your sins will be forgiven you but because you
say that you can see therefore your sins remain Lord I Every
child of God knows that but for the grace of God, they are just
as blind as about Can't see anything Lord, every, it's you that has
to work in me, causing me to will and to do your good pleasure.
If I'm gonna say anything about the glory of Christ, Lord, you're
gonna have to reveal it to me. I can't figure it out. I will give thee the treasures
of darkness and hidden riches of secret places. Oh, we were just in secret places,
weren't we? the hidden riches that thou mayest
know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the
God of Israel. What's his name? People call
him Jesus. A lot of people call him Jesus.
But when the angel told Joseph, you're gonna call that child's
name Jesus for he shall save his people. Jesus translated
means Jehovah saves. Jehovah saves. Not Jehovah's
gonna try to save. Not Jehovah's gonna make an offering
of salvation. Not Jehovah's gonna do his best
to get it done. No, Jehovah's gonna save. He's
going to accomplish the salvation of his people. And that's what
he did on Calvary's cross. And that's the biggest difference,
isn't it? He actually accomplished the
salvation of his people. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He's the
one who chose us in the covenant of grace before time ever began.
He's the one who worked out a perfect righteousness for us that we
might be acceptable before God. He's the one who satisfied the
demands of God's holy justice by shedding his precious blood
and putting away all the sins of all of God's people. He accomplished
our redemption. And God rose him from the dead
and received him back into glory where he ever lives to make intercession
for us. Not one of my sheep's gonna be
lost. Everyone I died for that They're coming to me Why is that's
what I came to do to save them. That's my name That's my name. And as we saw Sunday, people
call Jesus the Christ, but they deny what that very title means. He's the Messiah. He's the anointed
one. He's the one who came in the
full power of God to accomplish the purpose for which God sent
him. It's our salvation. Well, that woman at the well
said, we know that when Messiah comes, which is the Christ, he's
gonna take care of everything. And he did. He did. He's the Holy One of Israel. He's that straight board, isn't
he? He's that straight board. We're just looking at that board.
And all the pile of two-by-fours, there's only one straight board.
There's only one straight board. We're gonna hold on to that board.
We're not gonna let that board go, are we? All the rest of them
are crooked. He's Emmanuel. God with us. God with us. Do you ever pause
and think when we're worshiping together like this, that He's
here. He's here, right now. It's what
He said. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, we're here in His name. We're lifting Him
up. And if I be lifted up, I'll draw
men to myself and I inhabit the praise of my people. I'll walk
them on the candlesticks. I'm right here. I'm right here,
right now. When we come together for worship,
we are worshiping the audience of one. For Jacob, verse four, my servant's
sake, and Israel mine elect. I have even called thee by thy
name, I have surnamed thee. Though thou hast not known me."
Say, well preacher, how can that be about Christ? I don't think it's too far when to be forsaken of God is
to be cut off from Him. To be cut off from Him. Those
three hours on the cross, that was the agony of the atonement. As horrible as crucifixion would
have been. The agony of the atonement was
the cup that he had to drink from. And when he cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You and I are so used to
going hours. We can go a long time without
thinking about God, can't we? He had perfect fellowship with
the Father all the time. And when that sky was blackened,
God withdrew His presence? Can we not say, though thou hast
not known me? Was there not a period of time
where that knowledge, that fellowship that Christ had with the Father
was severed because of your sin, because of my sin? And though
we can't appreciate that the fullness of that we believe it
that's that was the travail of his soul I am the Lord course you know
that Historically, he's talking about Cyrus. Cyrus was a pagan
Persian king who didn't know God and God was, he was Cyrus's,
God, Cyrus was God's puppet as are all kings and all presidents
and all men for that matter. All men are the, are under the
sovereign authority of God. I am the Lord. There is none
else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee Though thou has not known me is one God one Savior That they may know from the rising
of the Sun and from the West that there is none Beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else You and I I need to hear that You know, we live at the
center, at the epicenter of our own little universe, don't we?
Every one of us do. We just go through this world
thinking that everything revolves around us. Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name be glory and power. Lord, it's for his sake. Everything
revolves around him. He's the only straight stick.
We're all crooked. Oh, this is our crooked thinking,
isn't it? We just continue to think crooked,
thinking that everything's about me. No, everything's about Him. That's what He's saying. This
is the reason why I'm doing this, because I am the Lord and there
is none else. I form the light. I formed the
light in the very beginning. The earth was without form and
void and darkness hovered over the face of the earth. And God
said, let there be light. And there was, and then in John
chapter one, speaking of the Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the
life. And the life is the light of
men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not. But as many as received him,
to them God gave the power to become the children of God. Straight in him. He's the light. I formed the
light. If I don't give you light... How many times have you talked
to a believer and said, you know, one day just the lights were
turned on. I saw things like I never saw them before. I saw
Christ, I saw myself, I saw the gospel. I didn't see it before.
God has to turn the lights on. And if He doesn't turn them on,
we'll just remain in darkness. And we'll think that we just
look like all the other sticks. until he turns the light on and
shows us that straight stick. Then all of a sudden, oh Lord,
what am I going to do? And then he makes the humble
exalted and the mountains made low and the crooked places straight. I form the light. I create darkness. I create darkness. Second, this
is a very humbling truth. Second Thessalonians chapter
two, because they had no love of the truth, therefore God sent
them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. God sent them a lie. They wouldn't
come to Christ, God sent them a lie. And they believed the
lie. And they lived in darkness and basked themselves in darkness
as if they were in the light. If you were blind, then your
sins would be forgiven you. But because you say you can see,
what those people who say they can see are living in darkness. Lord, don't send darkness to
me. Send me the light. I've got to see the light. I've
got to see Christ. And then look what else he says.
I make peace. I make peace. You can't make peace with God.
You can't make peace with God. I can't make peace with God,
can we? The Lord Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. And He
has made peace with God. By shedding His blood for all
of His people. And if we're going to have peace
with God, And that's the only piece that matters in the end,
isn't it? I mean, whatever, we, well, have peace with all men
whenever possible. As long as you don't have to
compromise the gospel, make compromise, make concessions. Be at peace
with men. Don't insist upon your way. It'd
make things a lot easier for you. But you can have peace with everybody
in the world. Everybody be your friend. Everybody
like you. If you don't want peace with
God, it doesn't matter, does it? I make peace. God's going to have to make peace.
Christ is going to have to make peace for me with God. And then I want you to don't
miss this last, I create evil. Every time a catastrophe takes
place in the world, every time a tragedy, and tragedies, listen,
I've had some tragedies. You've had some tragedies. These
are, they're very painful. And what does man say? Well,
if God could have stopped that and he didn't, then he's just
not loving God. And we can't, we can't except
the fact that God's not loving. So the only other conclusion
we can come to is that he wanted to stop it, but he relinquished
his sovereign power when he gave man free will. And so he couldn't
stop it. His hands were tied. And every
time there's a catastrophe, you listen to the pundit, the pundits,
you listen to the religious experts, what the, free will. Free will. God relinquished his power to
man when he gave him free will and he couldn't, he can't do
anything about it. That's crooked thinking. I create evil. Has evil come
to the city and the Lord's not caused it? You see, faith is just submitting.
It's submitting to, Lord, this is painful. I don't understand
it. But I'm not going to deny the
fact that you are absolutely sovereign and you had a purpose
in it. And if this is what it took in order to save my crooked
soul, then God knows what it takes to save your crooked soul.
And he's not going to stop short of anything in order to accomplish
his purpose, which is the salvation of his people. He's going to
bring every one of his children out of the fires of hell. Every
single one of them. Don't deny God. I've had people
say to me, you know, you can't tell children that God took their
parent. They'll hate God. So what do you want them to think
that God couldn't do anything about it? That they have a better
feeling towards God. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Period. Why did I do it? so those crooked boards could
see the straight one. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
thankful for your word, and oh, how we pray that you would increase
our faith and cause us to cast our crooked souls on the Lord
Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Number 27, let's stand together,
number 27. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the Law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath. no more constrained by fear. We worship and we serve our God
with gratitude and cheer. In Jesus we are free, in Jesus
we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt, we live in liberty. We'll join the happy song with
all the blood bought from. and sing the praises of the Lamb,
whose grace makes us His own.