The prophet said to King Zechariah
in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, I hope that the Lord will teach us that
tonight. Tom? 199, let's stand together. ? Sinners Jesus will receive ?
Sound this word of grace to all ? Who the heavenly pathway leave
? All who linger, all who fall ? Sing it o'er and o'er again
? Christ receiveth sinful men Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Come and He will give you rest. Trust Him for His word is plain. He will take the sinful last. Christ receiveth sinful men. Sing it o'er. Christ receive a simple man make
the message clear and play Christ receive a simple man Now my heart condemns me not
Pure before the law I stand He who cleansed me from all spot
Satisfied its last demand Sing it o'er and or again, Christ
receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Christ, receive a sinful man,
even me with all my sin. Give him every spot and stain,
heaven with him I enter in. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ, receive a sinful man,
Make the message clear and plain. Christ receiveth sinful men. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20. 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20. And while you do that, I want
to tell you that Digna went in the hospital this afternoon. She was told me Sunday that her
blood pressure was not stable. And so that's where she's at
now. We're going to see her after
the service tonight. And I guess Adam took Rachel
to the clinic this evening. And Deanna is having surgery. tomorrow and I talked to Winna
a little while ago and she wanted me to express to you her sincere
gratitude, appreciation, love for you all and the encouragement
and support you've been to them. Cade is translating tonight for
the very first time, he's ever done that. Eric Richards, who's
Cody's nephew, will be preaching in Merida tonight, and Cade will
be translating. So Cade was a little nervous
about that, but I told him that we would be thinking of them
and praying for him. Verse 17 of 2 Chronicles chapter
20, you shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves,
stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah
and Jerusalem. Fear not, be not dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites and the children
of the Kohithites and the children of the Korhites stood up to praise
the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose
up early in the morning and went forth to the wilderness of Tekoa.
And they went forth, and Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God,
and so shall you be established. Believe his prophets, and so
shall you prosper. That's God's call for us tonight.
Believe God. Believe his word, and so shall
you be established, and so shall you prosper. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the call that you've given to us from your word to believe
you. And we confess to you, Lord,
our complete dependence upon you to give us that faith. Oh, how we pray you will. We
pray that your word will be alive. We pray that it would It would
be as that double-edged sword dividing asunder the soul from
the spirit and the bones from the marrow and discerning our
own hearts and revealing to us thine heart. Lord, we want to
prosper. We want to be established. We
don't want to live our lives in fear. We need to know that
our sin has been put away. We need for you to comfort us
with your presence and with your grace. Lord, we pray for Digna. We ask that you'd be with the
doctors that minister to her now and give them wisdom to make
good decisions about her medication. Pray that you give her strength.
We ask, Lord, that you would comfort her heart as she struggles
with with this illness. We pray for Rachel. We ask, Lord,
that you would cause her to be recovered quickly and place your
hand of healing upon her. We thank you for Robert and Deanna.
Oh, Lord, we ask that you would comfort their hearts now as they
wait on you in Gainesville and be with the physicians that minister
to her. And, Father, we thank you for
the Groovers. Pray for Walter and Betty. Pray
for Winna. Ask, Lord, that you would just
continue to establish them and give them hope and comfort and
peace. Pray for Eric as he preaches tonight to the congregation there
in Merida, and pray for Kate as he translates. Lord, that
your hand of encouragement and hope would be communicated in
the message and would be heard by the brethren there. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand once again, hymn
number 44 from the Gospel Hymns book. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee, as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious
treasure, let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. That's a good hymn and so appropriate
for passage of Scripture I want us to look at tonight. Would
you turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 35? Isaiah
chapter 35. God's threatenings, from chapter
34, we saw Sunday, are not idle threats. The glorious thing about
chapter 35 is that now he turns the attention to the church,
to the believer, and his promises are not empty promises. What
great hope we see in this passage of scripture. I pray the Lord
would speak comfort to each of our hearts. I want you to notice
with me how this chapter ends in verse 10, because that's the
title of this message. The last part of, well, we'll
just read all of verse 10. And the ransomed of the Lord
shall return and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy
upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. sorrow and sighing
shall flee away life is filled with lots of things that cause
us to sigh and to be sorrow sorrowful mostly as believers we sigh over
our own sin and we sorrow over the grief that we've caused the
Lord because of our sin and the grief that our sin brings into
our own lives We are sorrowful oftentimes over the circumstances
of our lives. The precious promises that the
Lord gives us in chapter 35 are the are the remedy to that sighing
and sorrowing. And the Lord makes it clear that
he says, they shall flee away. They shall flee away. That's
what I need. I need the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal himself
to me with such clarity, with such power and such grace that
all my sighing and all my sorrowing just flees away in his presence. And if the Lord gives us ears
to hear the promises that he's made in this chapter, that will
be the result. whatever we have to sigh over,
and whatever causes sorrow in our hearts, if the Lord Jesus
Christ is pleased to make himself known. You remember that hymn
we used to sing a lot, tedious and tasteless? Prisons shall
be palaces if the Lord will be there. And that's so true. Paul and Silas, when they were
chained to that Roman dungeon in Philippi, had been beaten. And what did they, well, they
were singing. They were singing. All their sighing and sorrowing
had gone away in the presence of the Lord. And that's my hope,
that the Lord will manifest himself in such a way through his promises
so that all the sorrowing that we experience over our sin will
be, will flee away. and that the sighing over our
circumstances. Now I've heard men interpret
chapter 35 in light of the physical changes that have taken place
in Israel since 1947 and they use chapter 35 as proof that
we're in the last days because Israel has turned the desert
into a garden. I guess there's a lot of irrigation
and things that have taken place over there that have, you know,
that have resulted in that. That gives me no comfort. It
doesn't cause my sorrowing and my sighing to go away. It doesn't
comfort me in my sin in any way. That's not the interpretation
of this passage. It's a spiritual interpretation.
The wilderness that's being spoken of here is not the desert of
Palestine. It's the wilderness of sin in
which you and I live. It's where our father Adam brought
us to. As a result of the fall, we labor
with thorns and thistles, and we work by the sweat of our brow. And life as a result of sin is
filled with sighing and sorrowing. And the Lord says, here's what
I'm going to do in order to cause those things to flee away. I'm
going to give you my presence, my peace, my comfort, my hope. And I'm going to use my word
to do it. Look at verse 1. The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them. This world that we live in is
a wilderness, and it's a dry and thirsty land, and it's a
solitary place. You know, oftentimes we just,
we feel alone. We feel like there's no hope.
Especially when conviction of our sin comes and we see the
evil of our own hearts and that's where we live. And he said, if
you live in this place. Now, most people, it's a good
thing for the Lord to put you in a wilderness. It's a good
thing for the Lord to put you in a solitary place. because
most folks don't live in a wilderness. Most folks can be satisfied and
find purpose for their life with the pleasures that this world
has to offer. God's people are the only ones
that live in a solitary place. They live in a wilderness. They're
left not being able to be comforted by anything that this world has
to offer and desperate for his presence and for his power. Most folks are able to entertain
themselves with enough earthly pleasures until they are intoxicated,
spiritually dull and unable to sense their need for Christ. Like the Jews, they have irrigated
their land with material water and they live off the prosperity
of this world. God's people can't do it. We
enjoy the things that the Lord's given us, we're thankful for
them, but we find no satisfaction for our soul. We find no hope
for our life. We find no comfort in the sorrow
and the sighing of our sin-sick souls. We need something more.
Lord, I live in a wilderness and a solitary place, and the
Lord said, He will make me glad Now what is the them he's talking
about? You remember last Sunday, we were looking at the promises
of God, being sure that he does not fail. And so it's God's promises
that give us hope and comfort in this solitary wilderness in
which we live. So he says, the wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them. Oh Lord, speak peace
to my heart. Reveal yourself to me through
your word because I can't find anything in this world that gives
me hope, that gives me peace. I mean, I can entertain myself
just like anybody else, but that's a short-lived enjoyment. The pleasures of this world,
well, There's pleasure in them for
a season, isn't it? And that season soon passes and we're
in need of something else. Look what the Lord says in verse
1, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Lord, is God able to cause our
hearts to rejoice regardless of the sorrowing and the sighing
that he's given to us? Is he? Yeah, he is. He is. That's why the Lord said
in Philippians chapter four, rejoice in the Lord always. Oh, wait a minute, Lord, you
don't, no, no. Again, I say rejoice. Lord, you don't know my sorrowing.
You don't know my sighing. Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do. Rejoice
in the Lord always and let your moderation Don't be given to
extremes. Don't let your circumstances,
don't let your sighing cause you to react in extremes. Let your moderation be known
unto all men for the Lord is at hand. Oh, what a blessing
it is when the Lord enables us to be moderate in our circumstances. Be careful for nothing. Be careful
for nothing. In other words, don't worry.
But in all things, it's not don't worry, be happy, it's don't worry,
pray. Be careful for nothing, but in
all things, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be known unto
God and the peace of God that passes all understanding. How
can the peace of God pass understanding? Well, because I'm able to rejoice
even when my circumstances are causing me to sigh in sorrow.
I'm able to rejoice in the Lord. I'm glad the Lord didn't tell
us to rejoice in our circumstances, but in the midst of our circumstances,
rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in Him. Finally, my brethren,
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any
virtue in them, if there be any praise in them, think on these
things. Now those words can only describe
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's saying.
I know, children, you live in a solitary land. I put you there. I know you're in the wilderness.
You're between Egypt and the promised land. You're just like
the wandering Israelites. And you need a pillar of fire
by night and of cloud by day in order to guide your steps.
And that's what I'm gonna do until I get you to the Jordan.
And then I'm going to divide the Jordan and Joshua's gonna
bring you across. What a glorious day that's going
to be. We live in the wilderness. That's where we are. That's where
we are. And, you know, their clothes
while they were in the wilderness didn't wear out for 40 years. They didn't have to buy new shoes.
I mean, we have to buy new shoes every year, don't we? They wore
the same shoes for 40 years. Why? Because the Lord provided
for them. And every day they got manna,
the bread from heaven, and the water that came from the rock.
Why? Because that rock was Christ.
And that manna was Christ. He was with him. That's what
the Lord's saying here. You live in a wilderness. You
live in a solitary land. You live in a place where you
would be eaten up and destroyed if I wasn't there with you. But
I am. And because of that, you can
rejoice. You can rejoice regardless of your sorrowing, regardless
of the things that cause you to sigh, rejoice in the Lord. It shall blossom abundantly. And rejoice even with joy and
singing the glory of Lebanon. Now what's Lebanon known for?
How many times we read about the cedars of Lebanon in the
scriptures? I mean, those are stately trees.
Solomon cut them down and used them to build the temple with
them. And so when the Lord says, you're going to be like Lebanon,
you're going to have the strength of Christ. Where am I going to
get that strength? Only through my weakness. only
through my weakness. Lord, his strength is made perfect
in our weakness. But Paul said, when I'm weak,
then I'm strong. Why? Because then I'm dependent
upon him. And that's what he says here. Rejoice even with
joy and singing, the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it,
the excellency of Carmel. Now, what is Carmel known for?
Well, you know what happened on Mount Carmel, don't you? Elijah
went up there and met with those prophets of Baal and built that
altar and put the sacrifice on the altar and drenched it with
water and the prophets of Baal were of no success in calling
upon their God. Elijah prayed and the fire of
God fell from heaven. So the Lord says, I'm going to
give you the strength of the cedars of Lebanon and what took
place on Carmel. I'm going to reveal that to you.
I'm going to show you that the fire of God's wrath fell on his
own son on Calvary's cross and that he quenched that fire. So
that now he is our propitiation. There's no wrath. There's no
judgment. There's no fear of the law. There's no fear of judgment.
There's no fear of hell. God's given us peace. That's what he's saying here.
He said, I'm going to give them Lebanon. I'm going to give them
Carmel. And so it's the revelation of
Christ and the destruction. Two things that took place on
Mount Carmel. The revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who that sacrifice was. And that's what that fire coming
down was all about. What was the second thing that
took place on Mount Carmel at the same time? The killing of
all the prophets of Baal. Has the Lord done that for you?
Killed your prophets, I mean, your idols. Yeah, that's what
he does. When he reveals himself to us,
we realize that all the other things we trusted in were but
idols. And so he says, I'm gonna give
you the glory of Lebanon. I'm gonna give you the excellency. Excellency, I love that word.
the excellency of Carmel. What does Christ do? He excels
everything, doesn't he? He excels everything. I'm going
to give to you the excellency of Carmel. And Sharon You know,
Lebanon is in the north of Palestine, Carmel is in the center part,
and Sharon is in the southern part of Palestine, and Sharon
is known for what? The rose of Sharon were wildflowers. It was a valley, a very fertile
valley. And I understand that it's beautiful
to look at, with these uncultivated wildflowers that just grew, they
flourished in this valley. So I'm going to give you the
strength of those cedars of Lebanon. I'm going to reveal to you the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ on Carmel and I'm going to give
you the beauty and the sweetness of my grace like the rose of
Sharon. That's what I'm going to do for
you. I know you're in a wilderness. I know you're in a solitary place.
You know, we we're prone to to not have quiet time as much as
we ought to, aren't we? I mean, we live in a world, I
mean, we got cell phones in our pockets, and TVs, and radios,
and it's just going, going, going, and we're constantly, and that
distraction can become not a good thing. You know, we need to have
some solitary time, don't we? We need to have some time of
reflection, some time to be alone. And with our own thoughts and
with Christ, be still, be still and know that I am God. And so
he says, and they shall see the glory of the Lord. Somebody was asking me the other
day, well, you know, I don't understand why The Lord chose some and didn't
choose others. Well, he gives us the answer
to that in 1 Corinthians 1, doesn't he? He says that he did it to
bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. God's electing grace is to his
glory. Lord, if you didn't choose me,
I wouldn't choose you. And so when the Lord brings us, while
we're sorrowing, while we're sighing, in a wilderness and
a solitary place, the Lord's pleased to come along and make
himself known, feed us with the bread of heaven, and cause us
to rejoice with the strength of Lebanon, the revelation of
Carmel, and the sweetness of Sharon. And look what he says
in verse three. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. You know, it's good to sympathize
with one another in the trials and troubles, bear one another's
burdens, pray for one another, be an encouragement to one another,
you know, but, you know, that only goes so far. That only goes
so far. I need somebody to tell me about
Christ. That's how my feeble knees are
strengthened. That's how that's how my weak
hands are strengthened Tell me about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tell me what he has done Tell me that the battles not mine. It's the Lord's tell me that
he has successfully put away my sin tell me that he is alive
and intercedes for me and Tell me about Christ, because I need
to put my hope in Him. You know, I'm thankful when somebody
says, you know, I understand what you're going through. I
went through something similar, you know, or I'm praying for
you. I'm thankful for it. We ought to do that. When our strength wanes, our
hands are unable to do the work, our knees are feeble and buckling,
we need to hear about Christ. We need to hear who He is. He's
the Son of God. He's the glorious Savior who
has been successful in saving His people. And He's promised
to never leave us nor forsake us. He's promised to send his
comforter. He said, I'll give you my Holy
Spirit. Oh, Lord. The battle that we fight is not against
flesh and blood. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers and wickedness in
high places. So this is a spiritual battle.
We get all caught up in our temporal circumstances, don't we? But
the real battle is spiritual. And that's where the Lord's going
to have to make himself known. He went on to say that the weapons
of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, show me, show me how
the Father is pleased with your faithfulness, with your obedience. Stand in my stead before God,
plead my cause, be my surety. That's what he says. That will confirm the feeble
needs. That'll give us a place to stand.
What'd the Lord say to Moses? Moses, come here, stand by me. There's a place near unto me
where you can stand. And it was a rock, wasn't it?
Moses put his feet on that rock and he stood. In the midst of
a quaking mountain, in the midst of a rebellious people, he was
able to stand in the presence of God. He was standing on Christ.
Look at verse four. Do you know something about sorrow
and sighing? Do you want the Lord to cause
it to flee? He will. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance. Now, what is that a reference
to? Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Look at verse 39. This is Moses' prayer. Verse 39. See now that I, even
I, am he. And there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. And the Lord
makes it clear in Ecclesiastes that he makes everything beautiful
in his time, doesn't he? And we put our hope in something
that's dying and the Lord will make sure that it dies. He said,
I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal, neither is there any
that can deliver out of my hand, for I lift up my hand to heaven
and say, I live forever. Now this is a picture of Christ. He's the one who lifted up his
hand into heaven. He's the one that called to the
Father. He's the one who said, I live forever. If I wet my glistening
sword and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance
to my enemies and I will reward them that hate me. Now God Almighty,
the scripture says, he was pleased to bruise his son. He wet his
sword on the blood of his own son on Calvary's cross. And he,
well, he destroyed the works of the devil. He delivered his
people. He saved every one of them. I will render vengeance to my
enemy and reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk
with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh. and that with the
blood of the slain of the captives from the beginning of revenges
upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his
people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will
render vengeance to his adversaries and be merciful unto his land
and to his people. That's what God did. on Calvary's
cross. He exercised judgment and vengeance
against all our sin. It's our sin that causes us to
be at enmity with God. And all that sin was put away
once and for all by the sacrifice of Christ. So when the accuser
of the brethren comes and wants to cause sorrow and sighing in
my heart because of my sin, the only thing that takes that sighing
and sorrow away is when I'm able by the grace of God to look back,
to what Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross, and God says,
I remember your sin no more. I've separated it from you as
far as the East sits from the West. I'm not looking at your
sin, I'm looking at the blood. Go back with me to our text.
These are some precious promises. God doesn't give us empty promises. This is, this is his precious
word. Look at verse five. Then the
eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall
be unstopped. Remember that passage in Isaiah
chapter 6, they will have ears but they will not hear, they'll
have eyes but they will not see. It never ceases to amaze me how
religious people can sit and listen to the gospel and think
that they're hearing the same thing that they heard in a false
gospel church. It happens all the time. They
filter what they're hearing through their religious experience, and
they're picking out the words and phrases that they want to
hear, and they think we're saying the same thing. Why? Because
they're blind. They're blind. They're deaf.
They cannot hear. When the spirit of grace and
supplication is poured out upon the house of David and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, then they shall see him whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn after him as one mourneth
for his only son. That's what we need. Lord, I need the spirit of grace.
I need the spirit of supplication to be poured out on me so that
I can see Christ. I don't want to be deceived.
But the natural man, we're born deaf, we're born blind. I read
somewhere where someone had asked Helen Keller if she could have
her sight or her hearing, which would she choose? And I would
think, you know, you're born deaf and blind and you want to
see. She said she wanted to hear.
She said not being able to see puts you out of touch with things.
Not being able to hear puts you out of touch with people. And
I thought, you know, faith comes by hearing. God speaks first
by causing us to hear his voice. My sheep hear my voice. And the
opening of the eyes doesn't really come until we hear the truth.
But that's how we're born. What an awful way it would be
to live in this world, blind and deaf. And yet, that's how
people are spiritually. That's how we were. That's how
we came into this world. Deaf. Blind and lame. Look at the next verse. The eyes
of the blind shall be opened. He'll give us the seeing eye
and the hearing ear are from the Lord. Lord, you've got to
enable me to see Christ. Don't let me fall short of seeing
him. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart So here we are, crippled from birth, like that man in
Acts chapter four. You remember that Peter and John
were going into the temple to worship, and there was a lame
man from birth there at the gate called Beautiful. And he looked
up at, and he was begging for alms. And Peter caught his attention
and said, look up at us. And the scripture says he looked,
thinking that he was going to get some money from him. And
Peter said, silver and gold have we none, but such as we have,
we give unto thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, stand and walk. And the scripture says that Peter
reached out his hand. And the weak hand and the feeble
knees and Peter reached out his hand and immediately strength
was given to his legs and he started leaping. He started jumping. I mean he'd been lame all his
life and now he's jumping up and down with joy. Here's what
the Lord says, then shall the lame man leap as a heart. How
often sin leaves us lame, how often our circumstances leave
us crippled. We can't see Christ, we can't
hear. Here's the Lord's promise. Here's
what I'm gonna do. You live in a wilderness, you
live in a solitary land. I'm gonna create circumstances
in this life. Other men might be able to find
their purpose in life, in temporal things, but it won't be so for
you. You're not going to be content. And the tongue of the dumb sing,
for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the
desert. If any man thirst, that great
day of the feast, the Lord stood up there in Jerusalem, and there
was silence among the crowd, and he hollered out, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Why, he's that rock. Moses smote
the rock with the rod of God's justice and out of the rock And
Moses smote it twice didn't he? God said strike that strike the
rock once And when he struck it the second time God said you're
not going to the promised land You don't you don't smite the
sacrifice twice the first the first smiting was sufficient
Christ died once Water comes forth out of that rock. What
a miracle of grace That's what the Lord saying here the springs
of water shall come forth in the wilderness and break out
in the streams in the desert and the parched ground verse
7 the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs
of water and Lord, my sin and my circumstances leave me parched. And how oftentimes we try to
satisfy our thirst by drinking out of a broken cistern. We go
to the things of the world thinking, well, if I could just get a hold
of that, then I'd be okay. If you are okay by getting a
hold of that, then you have to question whether or not you belong
to the Lord. Because He's not going to let you be okay Grabbing
on to something that's temporal He's you still gonna be thirsty
You're still gonna be dissatisfied Nothing in this world. It's gonna
be able to feed your soul. If you're a child of God, you're
gonna have to have Christ And so he says The parched ground shall become
a pool and the thirsty land springs of water in the habitation of
dragons." Now, turn back with me to Deuteronomy 32 again. I'll
show you something else in Moses' song. What are these dragons
he's talking about? You know, is it the... The religious would say, they
would point their finger at all the wicked things that men do
out there in the world and say, well, those, that's the dragons,
that's the things that, you know, we want to avoid those things.
Sin will chew you up and spit you out. It's just, there's nothing
ever good's gonna come of it. But that's not what he's talking
about. Look what he says in Deuteronomy chapter 32 at verse 31. For their rock is not as our
rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. In other words,
they judge themselves by what they say about their God. By
your words, you shall be condemned. And so he says, their rock's
not like our rock. Their God's not like our God.
Look at verse 32. For their vine is of
the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are
grapes of gall, and their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the
poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asp. He's talking about
religion. He's talking about the religions
of this world. And everybody's religious at some point or another. Whether they're religious to
nature or whether they're religious to humanism or whether they're
religious in some other formal religious way, everybody's got
some sort of religion and God says their wine, what they're
drinking, their religion, like the poison of ask and the venom
the venom of ask and the poison of Dragons is not this laid up
in store with me and sealed up among my treasures You want that which is not poisonous
You're gonna have to come to me for that I'm the one that
stored that up in my treasure and You want that treasure? It's gonna be put in an earthen
vessel, but you're gonna have to come to me to get it. I've
got the keys to the storehouse. What a beautiful picture of Christ.
Joseph is in Egypt. And he had, for seven years,
had stored up all the plenty so that they could survive the
years of famine. And if you wanted anything, what did Pharaoh say?
Go see Joseph. Go see Joseph. And by the end
of the seven years of famine, Joseph owned everything. They
had sold him all the property. They had sold themselves. They
had Joseph possessed Pharaoh. There's a picture of God in that
story. Joseph being a picture of Christ
owned everything by the time the famine was over. Joseph had
the keys. That's what the Lord's saying.
You want You want to avoid that which is deadly in this world? You're going to have to come
to me because I treasure that up myself. To me, verse 35, to
me, belong with vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall
slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand
and the things that shall come upon them make haste for the
Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants.
When he see it, that their power is gone and there is none shut
up or left. When you, what God's saying is,
I'm not gonna do anything for you until you can't do anything
for yourself. When your power is gone, in that while we were
yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. When your
power is gone, his strength is made perfect in our weakness. He's not gonna open the store.
Those people didn't come to Joseph until they had eaten everything
they had. Look at verse 37, and he shall
say, where are their gods? Their rock in whom they trusted. Now, how did this passage start
out? Our rock's not like their rock. They're drinking wine,
they're going through their religious ceremony, and it's actually the
poison of dragons and the venom of poisonous snakes, asp. Where
are their gods? There are no gods. which did eat the fat of their
sacrifice and drank the wine of their drink offerings, let
them rise up and help you and be your protection. Let that false God rise up and
help you. Can't do it, can he? He's got
no power. What's the Lord done for us?
He's brought us to karma. He's shown us the difference
between the God, Baal, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah. He's shown us the difference.
He's given us the cedars of Lebanon and the sweetness of Sharon,
and He's promised all these things for those who live in a wilderness
and in a solitary land, those who are distressed, those who
sorrow and sigh. And this is what I'm going to
do to cause your sorrowing and your sighing to flee away. Look
at verse eight. And a highway shall be there,
and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. Christ is
that highway. He's the way, isn't he? I am
the way. I'm not going to show you the
way. I'm not going to teach you the way. I am the way. All ye
that are burdened and heavy laden, come unto me. I'll give you rest.
Learn of me. Not just learn from me, but learn
of me. Learn who I am. For my yoke is easy, my burden
is light. I'll give you rest for your soul.
Do you need rest for your soul? If the Lord's made you a sinner,
I know you do. You need your soul to be, you need to, you
need to find a place of comfort. The unclean shall not pass over
it. Who's clean? Who's got clean hands and a pure
heart? Who's not lifted up his soul to vanity? He's not spoken
anything that's vain. It's Christ. We're in Him. We're holy. but it shall be for those. I
love the last part of this verse. I had to, I had to read it several
times and read some and look up the words in order to understand
what it meant because the way it's written in the King James
kind of difficult, but here's what it means. Those that are
on the highway, Those that are in Christ, though they be wayfaring,
and though they act foolishly. That's what that word, most of
the time when the scripture speaks of a fool, it's speaking of an
unbeliever. But the word here is foolish.
And believers act foolishly. And they are often wayward. They
often wander off the road. And here's what he's saying. The wayfaring man and the foolish
one shall not err." He's not going to be able to
get off the road. Somebody was telling me the other
day about being on some island down in the Caribbean somewhere
and they were driving and going fast and they looked down and
it was just like, you know, hundreds of feet down to the rocks. He might let you get close to
the precipice, but He's not gonna let you fall. Not gonna let you
fall. Even though you often wayfaring,
even though you do foolish things, you will not err from the highway. You will not fall away. I will
keep you from falling and present you faultless before the throne
of God with great joy. Oh, that's my hope. As all these promises are precious
to us, but how oftentimes we're foolish, how oftentimes we're
wayfaring. And it's our foolishness and
our wayfaringness that causes our anxiousness and our sighing
and our sorrow, isn't it? And the Lord says, I'm not gonna
let you err. Verse nine, no lion shall be
there. Who's that who's the roaring
lion that seeks who he may devour? I'm glad the Lord didn't call
him an eating lion. He's just a roaring lion. That's
all he can do is roar He's make some noise Not gonna turn you
over to Satan I've delivered you from him You don't have to
live your life in fear of him He's not why he has no power The lion shall not be there,
nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. That's the false
prophets and false religion. They're not going to be part
of my church. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there. The unbeliever may, you know,
the reprobate may come and show some interest in the gospel if
he doesn't belong to the Lord. I mean, you've heard me say this
before. I'll say it again. If you can fall away, you will. You will. If you can. If you
can't, you won't. You can't. The ransomed of the Lord shall
return These are the ones that have been bought with a price
Been bought with a precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They've
been ransomed It's not a it's not an offer to ransom to you
know to you you got to make You've got to make your deposit or make
your decision. No, you've been ransomed and
You belong to the Lord. You've been ransomed. The ransomed
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion. Now I know all
of us, every one of us have sorrowing and sighing over the circumstances
and sin of our lives. But here's God's promise. When
you hear the gospel, when you hear about Christ, when God gives
you, what did Jehoshaphat say? Believe the prophet, believe
God, and he will deliver you. He will deliver you. So this
is the means by which the Lord gives faith, isn't it? Faith
comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. Here's
what God has said. Oh Lord, give me the grace to
believe you so that my sorrowing and sighing can be turned into
singing. Now I'm not talking about a feigned
religious, you know, show of happiness that's not real. I'm
talking about singing in your heart. knowing that all is well,
that our God does everything well, he's put away my sin, he's
prepared for me a place, and he's not gonna let me fall. He's
gonna keep me on the highway. And even when I'm wayfaring and
even when I'm foolish, he's not gonna forsake me. And they shall obtain joy and
gladness, and their sorrowing and sighing shall flee away."
Now that's God's Word. Lord, would you make this Word
effectual to me? Would you make it my experience? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful for your faithfulness. We're
thankful for the accomplished work of Thy dear Son. And oh,
how we pray that Your Holy Spirit would cause us to meditate upon
Thy Word and to believe it. Oh, we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number 12. Let's stand together.
Number 12 in the Gospel hymn. We'll sing this a cappella. So
be still, my heart. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what he does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harms. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love and truth
and power combine to make thee blessed. My God with skill infallible
and great designs of grace. With power and love that never
fail, shall order all my ways. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. My life's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God, who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Wait for him to leave. He was a liar. You know, it's,
uh, uh, I wouldn't have known. He's really good. He's really
good. He's awesome. Yeah. You know,
I don't know what to say about this. I don't know what to say. What are you doing? I don't know.