Well, let's look in the book
of Isaiah tonight, chapter 41, verse 15. See the last part of this chapter.
Remember how that God calls the owls, the nations before him
and demands a reckoning. He said, let's come near together
in judgment. Renew your strength, buckle up,
and come on, let's talk about it. Bring your best arguments. And then he declares that he
is the one who raised up the righteous man. He begins to talk about his son, the righteous
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, how he called him to his foot as
his servant, sent him on a a mission, with a work to do, gave the nations
to him, made him rule over kings, gave him a name which is above
every name, and gave the nations as dust
to his sword, gave him the victory. And we see Christ in this chapter
as in all, and we saw that man's natural response to God's Son
being exalted, God's Son being honored, God's Son being everything,
is they don't like that so they make their own God. They fashioned
them then out of wood and precious metals and things like that. Now they fashion them out of
their imaginations, out of theories and deductions and preferences
of man. They teach for doctrines the
commandments of men. But let's say let's read the
last part of the chapter beginning in verse 15 Behold I will make you and remember
let me do let me do let me review just a little bit more We saw
man's natural response, but then also he said but you in verse
8, but you Israel you're my servant You're not going to serve false.
God. You're my servant You might have chosen And we saw why? Some sinners don't bow down to
false gods. As in Elijah's day, God said,
I've reserved 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal. And
that's why I have chosen you. That's what Paul said in Romans
chapter 11. Even now, to this very day, there's
a remnant according to the election, according to I have chosen you,
verse eight of our text. Same God, same situation. God reserved some people that
didn't make idols out of silver and wood and fashioned them. He took them from the ends of
the earth and he says to them, verse 10, don't be afraid. I'm
with you. Don't worry that they're stronger
than you, that they're nastier than you, that there are more
of them than you. Don't worry about it. I'm your
God. Then verse 15, I will make thee
a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth Not only are you
mine But I'm going to give you a weapon Thou shalt thresh the mountains
and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff Thou
shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away. I and the whirlwind
shall scatter them, and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and
shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. When the poor and needy
seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for
thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I the God of Israel will
not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shita tree and
the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the
fir tree and the pine and the box tree together. I'm going
to give you a weapon that's going to separate the chaff from the
wheat. And I'm going to send water down
from the mountains. You live in the desert, but you're
gonna have plenty to drink And I'm gonna plant you by that water
trees of all different kinds that They may see verse 20 That
why does God do what he does? Why does God have a universe?
Why does he have an earth? Why does he have a you? That they may see and know and
consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath
done this and Guess what the title of the message is tonight?
The hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath
created it. This message is our message this
morning from Luke chapter 8. Think about this. From Luke 8,
22 through 25, we saw how that the Lord brought that storm,
how that they got in trouble, they found themselves helpless
and afraid for their very lives. They cried unto Him, they came
to Him, and He delivered them. Same story here, different characters,
different circumstances, and it happened a few thousand years
before. But read verses 10 through 14 with me again. Was it just
in review? We started in verse 15 reading
but listen to verse fear thou not For I'm I'm on your boat
see that Don't be dismayed they were dismayed weren't they we're
done For I am thy God what manner
of man is this I'm your God your Lord and your God and I will
strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all that
they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded."
Again, different storm. We saw that a storm raged in
the heart of the man in the context of our chapter this morning,
of our text this morning. Here's a storm of enemies, of
various enemies against his nation of Israel. They'll be as nothing. They that strive with thee shall
perish. Thou shalt seek them and shall not find them even
them that contend with thee they that war against thee shall be
as nothing as a thing of naught for I the Lord thy God will hold
thy right hand Saying unto thee fear not I will help thee Fear not thou worm Jacob And you men of Israel I will
help you saith the Lord and thy Redeemer The Holy will of Israel
and then we have this behold. I've got a weapon for you And
we'll talk a little bit about the details of this passage tonight,
but I want us to consider The fact that God did all of this
you reckon he brought that storm this morning as we saw why So
they'd say what who is this what manner of men the hand of the
Lord has done this and Pretty much that's a similar
reply. It's a similar place to go. He must be God. Only God
can forgive sins. Only God can command the winds
and the waves and they lay down. Only God can give sight to it.
Never has it been heard that anybody ever raised somebody
from the dead. There's only one. The hand of
the Lord did this. What manner of man is this? He's
the God man. He's our Lord and our God. God
had put his people here in a terrible situation in chapter 41 and all
through really the book of Isaiah, they were in and out and all
through the history of Israel, they were in and out of trouble.
We saw that in Psalm 107 this morning. He brought the storm,
didn't he? And they cried unto him. He put them in a terrible
situation with their enemies, his enemies, their enemies. And
they were scared to death and he delivered them. And why did
he do it? Verse 20, for his glory. So they'd see that God did this.
They'd learn something about who it is that we're dealing
with. To teach them that his hand is
mighty to save. That the solution to all of their
problems, have we learned this yet? The solution to every problem
you have is the power of your God. the willingness and power
of your God to make it stop, to end it, to put it away, to
save you from all your troubles. And all of these analogies in
the scriptures, whether it's an army of godless heathens as
in Isaiah's day here, whether it's a life-threatening storm,
whether it's a disease, a death, or a devil, Whatever our Lord
is saving his people from in these pictures The spiritual
version is that he has saved us from our sins He saved us
from our sins Our enemies we've seen that before
how that we have spiritual enemies in high places But what what
what enemy would Satan be to us if we had no sin? It really
boils down to our sin that Satan's an enemy, but if he didn't have
anything in me Like he doesn't in my master
And he wouldn't be much of an enemy to me He saved us from our sins he's
showing us that he is the mighty Savior the salvation Of sinners
is of the Lord. That's what he's showing us.
That's what he did this for That's what he did that for That's what
he always does it for. That salvation is of the Lord.
These are written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, that you might understand what manner of man
he is, that you might see that the hand of God is what saved
you. And there's a lot behind that
in there. His hand ain't gonna save you unless his heart saves
you. You see that? You're not going to have his
hand unless you have his heart. Whatever he's saving us from
in all these pictures and stories is what I want you to see is
he saves us in every way that a sinner can be saved. And he's
showing us that, that there's none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. and the power with
which he saves us. It's manifest in different ways,
isn't it? In these pictures, it's the mighty word to show
that this is the meaning. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them. It's his power, his hand that
does it. But here's the weapon. We'll talk about that a little
bit in a minute, the weapon that he gives. It's a mighty word
such as peace, be still. Or damsel, I say unto thee, I
say unto thee, arise. Or the touch of his hand, as
in the case of the leper in Matthew 8, 3, it says he reached out
and touched him and he was made whole. Or as in Simon Peter's
case, the Lord grabbed him by the hand and lifted him up out
of the waves before he could sink. But that power, that's
a visible manifestation in these stories of the power which we
cannot see. And that's the power of his precious
sin-atoning blood. There's power in the blood. We were sinking beneath the waves
of sin and the judgment of God. And he reaches from the cross,
he takes hold of us with his hand. And it has the scar of
a nail in it because he died there. He shed his precious blood
there for our sins. That's how he saves us. He washed
us from our sins in that blood. And he grabs us with that hand
and says, it's finished. And he made an end of sin. He
rescued us, our souls, from sinking, from certain eternal spiritual
death. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. And he bled and died for us.
And now we say with Paul, O death, where is thy victory? O grave,
where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. All of these pictures,
that's what they're pictures of. God giving us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. God has been saying for 6,000
years, I am God and beside me there's none else, a just God
and a Savior. How many times does he have to
show us how he saves us before we'll say salvation is of the
Lord? A just God and a Savior and there's
none, not anymore, there's no more like me, there's none beside
me. Nobody else. There's one savior and it's me
I'm the one that saves you You've been saying that for a long time
now a lot of different ways Salvation is of the lord. He said I am
the way I am the truth. I am the life Martha, I am the
resurrection Don't trust in the resurrection Trust in him who
is the resurrection Look unto me, all the ends of the earth,
and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else. He said,
it's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth,
it's of God that showeth mercy. He revealed this at the Red Sea
when he said through his prophet Moses, stand still, don't be
afraid, he said. He said, fear not, just stand
there and watch the salvation of the Lord unfold. Listen to the actual link fear
not stand still and see the salvation of the lord, which he shall show
you today Is that not what he said right here in our text in
isaiah 41? I did all this to show you I saved you I saved
you He revealed this in second chronicles chapter 20, I was
reading this this past week when the Ammonites and the Moabites
rallied against Jehoshaphat and the people of Israel, and God
spoke through a man called Jehaziel in 2 Chronicles 20, 15, and Jehaziel
said before all the people, he said this, hearken ye, all Judah,
and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you king Jehoshaphat, thus
saith the Lord unto you. What's God been saying? Be not afraid. Same thing he
said at the Red Sea. Same thing he says tonight to
our hearts. Don't be afraid. Be not dismayed
by reason of this great multitude. For the battle is yours. The
battle is yours. You're stronger than they are.
There's more of you than they are. Nope. The battle is yours. And he said this, don't be dismayed
by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours.
I read that wrong. Listen to this. The battle is
not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go ye down against
them. Well, why do we have to go Lord?
If the battle is, it's not our battle, it's your battle. We'll
just stay home. No, you go down there. Go down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz and ye shall find them at the end of the brook. Before
the wilderness of Jeruel You shall not need to fight in this
battle You just show up Just show up You're not gonna need
to fight set yourselves stand you still and see the salvation
of the Lord with you the salvation of the Lord with you His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted as God with you. God's salvation with us is Christ. See the salvation of the Lord
with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow
go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. He revealed
this same thing when he walked by the pool of Bethesda and singled
out a certain man and said, will thou be made whole? And when
that man didn't even have the good sense to just say yes, the
Lord healed him anyway. Our great Savior God performed
the salvation that all of these stories and many more picture.
He performed it. He showed it to us in all of
these stories in all of these different ways. He performed
it in Calvary. He performed it at the cross.
He actually accomplished it when he by himself. You're not going
to need to fight in this battle. He by himself purged our sins. And with his precious blood at
the cross, he washed them away and he cried, it's finished.
The battle is over. You didn't even have to lift
a finger. You already won. Just because I'm your God, and
I did it so that you would know and understand and tell everybody
that will listen, the hand of the Lord has done this. Can we
do that? Go home, he said to the Gadarene
and Demoniac, and do what? Tell them? How that the Lord
hath had compassion on you. What great things the Lord hath
done for you and hath had compassion on you. He'd been saying it a
long time, hadn't he? He said it a lot of different
ways and he accomplished it for us on the cross. And we're still talking about
it. And yet people are still getting together and bragging
on one another and calling it church and saying I made a decision
for Jesus and he did his best and left it up to me and I stepped
up. But what do you say? He hadn't showed it to them,
but he showed it to us, hadn't he? He did it that you might
know and understand. Salvation is by my hand. They say, I made a decision. I exercised my will. But in verse
20 of our text and in the context, God said that he actually saves
his people. Sinful, vile, helpless and hopeless
people. He saves them, without them,
for them, by himself. And reveals himself to them in
such a way that they know something. They know something that's plain
to see. They know something that there's no excuse for not knowing. They know something that everybody
ought to know, but that very few people know. The hand of
the Lord has done this. When I deserved his wrath richly. He was rich in mercy. When I
was so lost, I could not find my way. He came. Seeking. came right to me, picked
me up, put me on his shoulder, and carried me home rejoicing.
Is that your Savior? How many ways has he shown us
this? How many gospel messages are contained in this holy book
that declare the same thing? Salvations of the Lord. When
I was yet without strength, when I could do nothing, When I was
helpless and hopeless in due time, Christ died. That's how he saved me. That's
how he won the victory. He died for my sins according
to the scriptures. He died for the ungodly. When
I was spiritually dead, it says the man in the story of the Good
Samaritan says he was half dead. And we know what that signifies,
don't we? We're looking at a world of people walking around half
dead. And the best half of them is dead. Spiritual, spiritual death. And
he was just about completely dead. There's hope, as long as
you just half dead, there's hope. As long as you, you're spiritually
dead. Now there's no hope in you. There's nothing you can
do about it. Dead people don't just get up and walk. They don't
take the first step, the last step, or any step in between. But you're not all the way dead
yet, there's hope. But this man lay in the ditch
bleeding out, and this is me now, half dead and just about
spiritually dead and soon to be gone, to be plum utterly gone,
soon. And he came where I was, and
he poured in the oil of his grace and the wine of his precious
blood. And he picked me up. He lifted me up and took me to
safety and paid my bill and said, whatever he owes, put it on my
tab. I could go on all night. It's
the same story. Same gospel. Same savior. Same hopeless case. Same glorious
salvation. Whatever debt he incurs, it's
covered. My debt, my sins, all of my sins,
past, present, and future, are covered by his precious blood.
I don't know that I've ever heard that preached, or I've preached
on it several times myself and never seen that, how he said,
whatever he owes, if he incurs any more debt, have you incurred
any more debt since the Lord saved you? Every day, all day. I just get deeper and deeper, don't
I? It's covered. It's paid for. So you see our text here in Isaiah
41. It's not a history lesson. It's
not just an ancient story. It's my story, right now, tonight. And yours, if you know him, if
you're his. It's the story of my need and His rich grace. It's
the story of my sin and His righteousness. It's the story of my shame and
His glory. And we're still telling it. And
may we go from here this very night saying in our hearts, the
hand of the Lord has done this. How wonderful it is to just stand
still and see His salvation. Whenever somebody preaches the
gospel, I see God save me. I'm just sitting there watching
Him save me. What a beautiful sight. A believer can say this in every
situation. When a storm comes, what should
we say? The hand of the Lord hath done
this. If God has been delivering his
people from trouble all these years so that he could show them
his saving love and power, then what are we going to say when
we get in trouble? Can we see all that and acknowledge the
truth of it that he's been saying it ever? He's been putting it
on display. He's been showing us from the
start how he saves us. And can we still not know? Has
he been so long time with us and we don't know who he is?
We don't know what manner of man he is. What are you going
to say when you're hurting or confused or afraid or in trouble? The hand of the Lord has done
this. And then what are you going to say when he gets you out of
trouble? When you think of salvation and
the forgiveness of your sin, what are you going to say? What's
your testimony going to be? Is it going to have the word
I in it at all? I made, I did, I came, I... The hand of the Lord had done
this. There's no I in that. When we have a good day of worship
like we had today, what are we gonna say? And when we walk from this building
comforted and safe and happy, glad, When we go, as the scripture
says, saying that it's been good to be in the house of the Lord,
what would we say about that? His gracious, mighty hand has
touched us again. When God, in all of our life,
when God gives us a baby or takes somebody away from us, what are
we going to say? The sharp instrument in our text,
of course, is the Word of the Lord. The Word of God is mighty
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing
asunder the very marrow, the very soul. It's the Gospel. It's our weapon in this fight.
And it is a fight. There's always a storm. There's
always a battle. And it's a spiritual battle.
We're fighting against ourselves. And every enemy we have, this
flesh, Satan, this world, this wretched world, the cares of
this world are always trying to choke out the Word. It's always
a battle. The Spirit wareth against the
flesh and the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. And this Word that
declares over and over and over the Lord Jesus Christ and shows
Him to be our Savior and our King, our reason not to fear,
our hope and our help in every situation. This word is how we
overcome. This word, listen to 1 John 5,
4. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. We're gonna win the battle, we're
gonna win the fight. We overcome ourselves, our own wretched sin
nature. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Because faith unites us
to Christ who is The victory is given to us in Christ. And
we see the victory won by Him by faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
If you know Him, if you love Him, it's because He loves you.
And if He loves you, you win. You win every time. Even when
you lose, you win. You understand what I mean by
that? Everything works for your good. Even when you say, well,
I lost that one. You still won. You lost it for
your good. How do we have faith that overcomes?
Well, we're born of God, he said there. He that's born of God
overcometh the world. And that's how we have faith.
Faith's the gift of God. It's people born of the Spirit
that are able by that new heart that he gives to believe on the
Son of God. And how does he give us faith? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. That's the sharp threshing instrument. And the analogy here in our text,
what is that instrument? What does a weapon do? This weapon
He said, we'll divide the chaff from the wheat. It cuts, it threshes,
and it fans. Let's look at that again in the
text. Behold, verse 15, I will make
thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shalt thresh
the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.
And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord. Now you think with me what's
happening here. The analogy of separating chaff from wheat is
described here clearly. Now this is how God makes a division. It's the gospel, it's the threshing
instrument that cuts it down, cuts down the wheat and the chaff.
Wherever the gospel is preached, there is a cutting down, there
is a bringing down of everybody. There is a separation, a winnowing
of the wheat. The chaff gets blown away, And
the wheat remains. Now, think about this. Both get
cut down. But before the cutting down,
the chaff looks pretty good. You can't really tell it from
the wheat. It's just part of the... It's able to hide and
appear to be part of the wheat. It's not part of the wheat. God
knows better. But then there's a cutting down
in verse 15. And then look at verse 16 again.
Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away." The effect
of the gospel on them, they're gone. What's the effect
of the gospel on the wheat? You're going to rejoice and glory
in the Holy One. Same gospel, the saver of death
unto death to one, the saver of life unto life to the other.
You see the separation? They're blown away. They're scattered.
They're scattered. They went away and walked no
more with him. Will you go away also? Oh no. We're rejoicing
in you. You have the words of eternal
life. Separation. The chaff just got blown, fanned
away. And the wheat is revealed for
what it is. The truth cuts. It threshes and
it fans and the chaff is scattered by it. But once they're scattered,
somebody is going to still be sitting there rejoicing and glorying
in the Holy One. That happens every time we meet.
It happens everywhere all over this world, wherever the gospel
is preached. That's the people of God. That's
the remnant. That's the elect. That's the
gleaning grapes. That's God's fruit. That's God's
chosen. The wheat. They're gonna be rejoicing
in him. The wheat gets cut down too,
but that's good for them. Wheat's worthless until it's
cut down. Not good to anybody. It's not any good to anybody.
It's just sitting out there in the field blowing around. Chaff is revealed to be useless
by the cutting and the fanning. And the wheat, by the same process,
is made to shine. The weed is brought to a desired
end by the cutting and the fanning. In verse 17 through 19, listen
to this. We'll have to... Verse 17, when the poor and needy
seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for
thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them. This is the gospel. It's still talking about the
same thing. This is the wheat. The chaff has been blown away,
they're gone. But his wheat, how, we're thirsty, how are we
gonna get something to drink? The water of life, the gospel,
the truth. I will hear them, I, the God
of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places.
David said, you make me to lie down in green pastures by the
still waters. What are we drinking? We're drinking
of him, how? Through his gospel, through his
word, by faith. in his written word, in his preached
word. I will open rivers in high places, verse 18, fountains in
the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a
pool of water and the dry land springs of water. And I'm gonna
plant. God declares what else he does
here in these three verses by means of his word. First, there's
a separation, right? And then now we have the wheat.
The wheat is left. They're rejoicing and glorying
in the Holy One of Israel. And here's what he does. By means
of his word, his son preached his gospel, his truth, there's
water in the desert. Water in the desert. You come
to get a drink today, didn't you? And I trust you've been
able to drink and be refreshed. How are we going to live? By every word. Every word. The whole gospel, I'm not shunned
to declare unto you the whole gospel, the entire gospel of
God. This is how God does not forsake
us, verse 17. He said, I'm not going to forsake
you. How does he not forsake us? He comes and speaks to us
by his gospel. He said that when two or three
meet together under the salad, to meet and to hear his gospel,
to worship him. He said, I'll be there with you. This truth we've been talking
about from the start, the truth of Christ, who he is and what
he's done, what he's doing, what he will do. You know what he's
always been doing? Saving us. You know what he's
doing tonight? Saving us. You know what he's
going to do? He's going to save us. Christ himself and Christ in
the preached word is as a river of life in this desert world. Is it not? And there are some trees planted
by that river. You see that in the text? All
different kinds of them. Are you one of them? Are you
one of those trees? They're planted in the desert,
verse 19. They're planted in the desert, but they're not thirsty.
There's a river coming right to them. It's flowing right to
them. There is a fountain. He said
there'll be fountains right there in the desert, right in their
midst, right where they are. Constantly supplying them with
what they need. The blessings of Christ. The
peace that comes through hearing of Him. The comfort, the refreshment,
the life. Thou hast the words of life. We're drunk of the water of life.
God's drink indeed. He said my precious blood is
drink indeed. And as promised by him. We never
thirst again. Never thirst again. John 737
listen in the last day that great day of the feast. Jesus stood
and cried saying. I heard somebody preach on this
a long ago. A long time ago, that day of the feast, all the
Jews had come to one of the religious feasts of the Jews, and they
come from all over the place. Some of them traveled hundreds
of miles just from all over the place to observe that feast day. And when it was over, in the
last day, when everybody's going home, the Lord stood and cried out
with a loud voice. Is anybody thirsty? Is there
anybody here who didn't get what they came for? Is there anybody
here who, for whom the religious observance, the outward religious
observance, was not enough? Is there anybody still needy? Or was just doing your religious
duty, was that what you came for? Are you thirsty? And he said, if anybody is, let
him come unto me and drink. He that believeth, how do you
drink? How do you drink of a person? He that believeth on me. Do you
believe on him? Faith is how we drink. We come
to the fountain today to drink by faith. of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, he that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. What we need, we need it on the
inside, don't we? When you drink some water, that
water is all fine and well right here. You can pour it over your
head, that feels pretty good, but you're gonna have to take it
in, aren't you, for it to do you any good. When you believe on
him, the water's on the inside now. The supply is on the inside. John 4, 13, Jesus answered and
said unto her, the woman at the well, Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. So you see what our text is talking
about. That weapon, that sharp threshing
instrument, it separates, doesn't it? It makes the difference.
There was a division among the people because of him, it says
in the book of Acts. When Christ was priest, there
was a division because of him. There was a winnowing, there
was a fanning. There was a blowing away of the chaff and the wheat
rejoiced in him. And then by that same word, he
supplies our every need. Our most urgent need physically
is water. And this is just symbolic of
the fact that He supplies all of our needs. According to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That's what Paul said. Our God
shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. John 6.35, Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And if you remember John 6, when
our Lord said that, in the context there, as our Lord taught him
that he was the bread and he was that drink indeed, many were
offended and walked no more with him. And he said to the 12, will
you also go away? That's the threshing, that's
the winnowing, that's the fanning. And some are driven away. But what about you? What about
you? The chaff went away and the wheat
was revealed for what it was. It was separated out. Our Lord
fanned the chaff, and all that was left was a handful, rejoicing
in Him alone. Why aren't you going away, Peter? You remember the first word out
of his mouth? To whom shall we go? I'm not going anywhere. Why? Thou. Thou. And then of course, verse 20
of our text, that they may see and know and consider and understand
together. If we walk from this place tonight,
seeing, understanding, considering, and knowing this, Do you realize
what a precious, rare group that puts you in? What a blessed and
happy group that puts you in. How much wheat is there in this
world? That the hand of the Lord hath
done this. I can't help but think of old
Job when I think of this now, of salvation being utterly of
him. and the Lord, the power of God
to save. After all that God put Job through,
he learned two things. I know that thou canst do anything, and that no thought of thine
can be hindered. The hand of the Lord hath done
this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. He's done all
of it, and we look back at Everything that he's done may
we give him the glory for it He's done it all and he hath
done all things well Let's pray together