Alright brethren, let's go to
Isaiah, back to Isaiah 40. Now this word is to God's chosen
remnant in Israel. It's to God's people. The whole word of God is to God's
people. It's to those He's calling by
His grace. And it's to those He's already
called by His grace. It's to His people. And this
word was to His chosen remnant in Israel. From various times
in their history, the Lord would send enemy nations up to attack
Israel and take them captive. We haven't had that happen in
this country, and we're pretty proud and think that we're strong
and wise and that won't happen to this nation, but it could
just as easily happen to this nation as it's happening over
there. It happened to Israel many times. But in our lives,
in our personal lives, and as a church, the Lord allows, permits,
or brings to pass things like this for his people, for his
people. And as they were in this captivity,
they were thinking God had forgotten them. They were thinking God
had passed over judgment for them and to judge things and
to save them and keep them and deliver them. They thought he
had forgotten them. But God brings his children into these kinds
of circumstances and makes his children wait on the Lord until
he brings us to the end of ourselves He does this all over again,
like He did when He first saved you, so that the only thing we
can do is believe on Him. That's the purpose of it. I remember
when some came to me, and the first time they asked to be baptized,
and they were just big old tears, and their heart just broke. So
they saw themselves a sinner, and they saw what Christ done
for them. The Lord keeps bringing his people there over and over
and over. Keeps us there. Keeps us there. This is God's word to his elect. This was a believing remnant
he's speaking to here as well as to those he's just calling.
Because he's going to bring us to the end of ourselves when
he first calls us to. But he keeps working this to
keep us knowing he's our wisdom and our strength. And he says
messenger to them to comfort them. He said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. That's how verse 1 started. Tell
them their warfare's accomplished. I've rewarded them double for
all their sin. But here they are now. They're
pining away. They're thinking the Lord's forgotten
us. Our way's hidden from Him. He
don't see the trouble we're in. And He's not judging things and
delivering us. And we'll get in that place where
we think that's the case. Here's what He says to them in
verse 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou Israel, my
way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from
my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint.
And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the
youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. God brings us into these troubling
situations to bring us to the end of ourselves, and He makes
us to wait for Him. He makes us to wait on Him, to
wait on Him, in order to renew us in the knowledge of who we
are. This is what He teaches us when He first comes. He teaches
us who we are. And then he keeps renewing his
child, teaching you who we are. He says there in verse 27, Why
sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? See who he's talking
to? Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel? Is he talking to two different
people? No, this is one believer. He's talking to one believer
right here. This is the name of every chosen, redeemed, regenerated
child of God. In our sin nature, we're Jacob. But in Christ, by God's grace,
we're Israel. We're Israel. Jacob means supplanter,
trickster. He came out of the womb holding
on to the heel of his brother. And that's where his name comes
from, supplanter. Supplanter. In our flesh, we're
sinful supplanters. He says in another place, thou
worm, Jacob. That's where we get this saying
of saying we're worms. He said, thou worm, Jacob. The
word is maggot, is the word. Feeding on death. Feeding on
death. That's not a pretty description,
but that's his people. That's us in ourselves, in our
wisdom, in our strength, in us. But in Christ, and due to Christ,
our name is Israel. Our name is Israel. How did that
name come to be? Well, God changed Jacob's name
to Israel. He changed his name to Israel.
Because it means, as a prince, thou hast had power with God
and hast prevailed. That's your name, believer. You're
Israel. The Israel of God. That's the
name of all his people, the Israel of God. Each of us individually.
Jacob and ourselves, but in Christ and by Christ, Israel. Now how
did Jacob prevail? You remember that? You remember
how Jacob prevailed? He had power and he prevailed
with God. Well, he didn't at first. He
didn't at first. Because he was being Jacob. He
was wrestling in his own wisdom by his own might trying to get
a blessing from Christ. That's a picture of a sinner
trying to come to God by our will and our works and trying
to approach God in how we think we ought to come to God and by
what works we think God ought to receive, our will and our
works. And that's a picture of you and me as believers where
we often get ourselves in these situations where we're looking
at our wisdom and our might and trusting in our good works, or
something, how far we've come, or whatever it is we start looking
at, instead of looking at Christ. And so the Lord brings us to
this place where He brought Jacob. What happened is the Lord came
to him. This is how it all started for Jacob. This is how it started
for me and you by His grace. The Lord came to Jacob. Jacob
didn't come to the Lord. The Lord came to Jacob. The Lord
didn't come to me and you. We didn't come to Him. He came
to us. And here's what, Jacob's wrestling, he's trying to use
his wisdom and his strength and he's trying to get a blessing
from Christ. And Christ saw Jacob was not prevailing, because you
won't prevail with the Lord that way. And so the Lord put his
thigh out of joint, broke his bones. Jacob couldn't fight anymore. The only thing Jacob could do
was hang on to the Lord and plead and cry and beg Him to have mercy
on him. That's all he could do. And Hosea
said, he wept and made supplication unto the angel of the Lord. That's
how he prevailed. That's how he had power. His
power was Christ. His power to bring him to trust
Christ and wait on Christ to bless him was Christ, and the
blessing was Christ. You get that? He wouldn't have
even done that if it wouldn't have been for Christ's wisdom
and power to bring him to that place where he had to stop using
his own wisdom and his own so-called free will and his own work and
Christ broke his bones. And then the one who was the
blessing and the wisdom and the strength at the end of that was
Christ. Christ brought him there and
Christ was the blessing he brought him to. So a believer in the first hour,
that's what Christ did for us, but that's what he's going to
keep doing for us. So these two names, this is why he brings
us as believers into these situations. Again, it's to remind us these
two names is who we are. In ourselves, we're Jacob, trying
to wrestle in our own strength, by our own wisdom, by our own
might, by our own works, just like when we didn't even know
God. And we don't see it when we're
doing it, but we do. But in Christ, and by Christ,
we're Israel. By Him we have prevailed, and
He's the power we've had with God. But God began this work
of salvation in us, and He's going to perform this work of
salvation in us, just like He did when He came to Christ the
first hour. Now, if you didn't start this
way, then you're not going to continue this way. But if this
is how we started, by Christ sending the gospel to us in truth
and wrestling us and breaking our heart by his power and his
wisdom so that he is our only power and wisdom, we'll continue
in this way because he will continue this work in his people. That's
so. It don't matter what you come
into. If you'd have seen Israel in
Babylonian captivity, you'd have thought it's over for them. But
it wasn't over for them. God put them there on purpose
to do this work for a whole nation. He can do it for His individual
people, for you and me. He'll continue this work. But
now listen to God's Word, verse 27. He says, Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest thou of Israel, and say, My way is hidden from the
Lord, and my judgment is passed over for my God? He's saying,
Why do you say, God can't see the trouble I'm in? God's forgotten
to judge for me. He's forgotten to deliver me.
Why do we say that? Do you ever say that? Do you
ever get in a shape where you feel like that? Brethren, as
believers, it's just some belief. That's all it is, is unbelief,
to look at our circumstances and think God doesn't know we
need him, to think God's forgotten to work good for us. Look to
Christ and trust him alone. That's what God's teaching us.
the whole way. Every step of this way, that's
what God's showing us more and more. People talk about wanting
to grow in grace and knowledge of Him. What else do we think
it is other than Christ showing us all we are is grass. And all I do in this is as the
flower of the field. We're not talking about pretty
grass you plant, Bermuda grass or something that you plant.
We're talking about old field grass that nobody wants that
you just want to cut down. and it sprouts up some flowers
and they're gone just overnight. That's what we are. And what
else is He teaching us? Behold your God. He's your salvation. This is the lesson, always the
lesson. It's real simple and we overcomplicate it. We're flesh,
the Lord's salvation. We're flesh, we're grass, the
Lord's salvation. Now secondly, God brings His
child to this place in the first hour to regenerate us and teach
us this, and then as believers he brings us to this place to
renew us and teach us this, to renew us in the knowledge of
who Christ is on our behalf. He teaches us who Christ is on
our behalf. Now look here in verse 28. He
says, Has thou not known Has thou not heard that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary, there's no searching of his understanding?
When the Lord, you know, you can be troubled, so troubled
and so cast down. And the Lord will bring a scripture
like this to you. And it's how the Lord speaks
to you. And He says this, it's like speaking
audibly to you. And He says it so real into you,
it makes it just so living in you. When He says, have you not
heard, have you not known? And it's like a light bulb goes
off. Yes, I've heard. Yes, I know. I know who He is. He's taught me. He's given me
ears to hear. He's given me an understanding.
Why am I pining away like this, acting like He don't know I need
Him? I tell you why. Why do we need him to do this
for us over and over? Martin Luther said we need to
hear the gospel every day because we forget it every day. Don't
ever, you men that preach, don't ever hesitate And I know people
get mad and they'll leave and say, well, he just preaches the
same thing over and over. Thank you. What a compliment.
You preach the same thing over and over and don't ever take
for granted that the people that you preach to have heard it.
Oh, they've heard it with these ears. But I can't tell you how
many times I've seen believers walk up to my pastor and say,
Marvin, I never heard that before. This is the first time. That
was such a blessing. And I know Marvin has said that
a thousand times. And I've experienced it. I've
done it myself where I thought, I've never seen that before.
And come across some notes where I preached it five years ago.
We need to hear the gospel all the time. We forget it every
day. So after God makes us know who
we are, God renews us in the knowledge of who He is, His name. He says He's the everlasting
God. That means He's the immutable,
unchanging, unchangeable God. That means His gifts and calling
are without repentance. That means if you've ever tasted
of the Lord's grace, if He's ever come to you in grace and
made you to know who He is, I don't care how dark it gets or how
cold and dead you think you are, this is certain. He's not going
to leave you. He's going to make you know because
his grace don't change. His grace don't change. Why would
he bring me to that place and leave me so cold and so dark
and filled to come to you and show you? You're not the one
keeping you. He's the one keeping you. He's
the one keeping you. Well, the scripture says we purify
ourselves and we keep ourselves. Yep, just like that little three-year-old
walks along holding on to your hand, and when you get out to
the traffic, if he wasn't holding your hand, he'd run out there
and get run over, wouldn't he? No, you're holding his hand.
He's got a hold of your little finger, but you're holding on
to his hand. That's how he keeps us keeping ourselves. He's got
a hold of us. He's a big hand. He said he holds
all the waters in the heavens, I mean in the earth, he holds
those waters in the hollow of his hand. He's a big hand. And that's the hand we're in.
He's the everlasting God. He's the Lord. He's Jehovah,
self-existent, all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful God of heaven and
earth who rules all things. He's the creator of the ends
of the earth. You go back and you read Isaiah
40 again. And what he's saying to us is,
he's trying to, he's teaching us how big God is and that we're
just that little bit of dust that's left in the balance that
that you don't even notice once you've poured out the valuable
stuff. That's us. It's to make us see him, how
big he is, and how small we are so we know how much we depend
on him. But it's also to show us we can
be sure he's going to provide for his people. He's going to
provide for his people. He's the captain of our warfare
who accomplished the salvation of his people. He's the mighty
Savior. He's come. His reward is with
Him. His work is before Him. That
means everything He does is by Him, for Him, and to Him, and
you're His workmanship, and He's not going to lose you. He's the
mighty Savior who gathers up the Lamb with His arm and carries
Him in His bosom and never loses one of His people. Not ever. Not ever. The nations are less than nothing
and vanity before him. The kings of the earth, they
fight and squabble and nations fight with nations and all that.
The Lord just taking his little finger and just turn them any
which way he wants to turn them. He's ruling it all, and he's
doing it for his people. Why I sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest thou is from my ways hid from the Lord? Why? My judgments
passed over from my God. Have you not heard? Have you
not known? He's the everlasting God. He's the Lord. He's the
creator of the ends of the earth. If fainteth not, he's not weary.
There's no searching of his understanding. That word fainteth and weary. Two different words for you.
One means to have all your inherent strength, all strength that's
in you to be gone, to be gone. And weary means to be worn out
from just all the troubles of life. He never faints and he's
never weary. He's full of inherent strength
all the time. He is power. That's who Christ
is. And all the things that are going
on that weary us and wear us out, He's in charge of all of
them and He's not. He says in the verse before,
you look at all the stars and the moon and everything He's
created and how He calls them by name and He holds them all
in store and He makes them all do His bidding and He says now,
Don't worry. He does not faint and he's not
weary in dealing with you and me. Never. Never. Man puts so
much confidence in our strength. We sleep. Who's protecting you when you
sleep? We grow weary. God never slumbers. He never
sleeps. He never faints. He never grows
weary. He brings us to our wits end. All our wits we're trying
to use to be so clever and so wise. He brings us to our wits
end. This is, if you don't bring us
here when he first saves us, we haven't been saved. He gotta
bring us to see we're just, all we are in ourselves is enmity
against God. That's it. Not at enmity against
God. We are, in our sin nature, the carnal mind is enmity against
God. Got no understanding and no wisdom
whatsoever. And he's gotta keep us knowing
this about ourselves. So he brings us to our wits end. Can I know what to do? You ever
been there where you just said, I don't know what to do. I don't
know what to do. He brings you there on purpose.
You know why? To teach you that while you don't
know what to do, verse 28, there is no searching of his understanding. He knows what to do. He knows
what to do. He knows what to do. He knows
what each of his people need. That's why he works providence
to bring us to our wits end, the end of our wisdom. He brings
us, he works providence to bring us to that end. You remember
all the trouble that, now listen, all the trouble the Lord put
Joseph through at the hand of his brothers. You remember that? They threw their brother in a
pit And then they said, hey, we could make some money off
of him. And they sold him to people passing by. And so he
ends up down in Egypt. And then he ends up in prison
while he's in Egypt. But before it's over with, the
Lord put him on the throne second behind Pharaoh in Egypt. And
when it was all said and done, he made Joseph understand what
the Lord was doing through the whole thing. He said to his brothers,
you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. He brought
me here to be able to provide for you brothers who treated
me so mean and show you mercy. That's what God did it for. And
He taught Joseph that. And that's what He's doing everything
in this world for, to teach us. It's for our good. And it's to show us He is our
wisdom, so that we wait on Him, on Christ our wisdom. And not
only that, it's to teach us Christ is our strength. Look here in
verse 29. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength. God's
the giver to us of everything. He's the giver of everything
at all times beginning to end. He gave us grace when he chose
us in Christ. He gave his only begotten son
to his people. Christ gave His life. He poured
out His blood to save His people. He gave us life when He called
us, by His strength, by His wisdom. He gave us His robe of righteousness,
making us the righteousness of God in Him. And He's giving us
everything we have every day in our lives. Everything is His
gift. He's the giver. He's the giver. It says there, he giveth power
to the faint and to them that have no might he increases strength. He's the giver and he'll give
his child strength to continue persevering, doing one thing,
believing on Christ. Believing on Christ. Are you
faint? Are you, do you have no inherent
strength whatsoever in you? Absolutely none. Are you at your
wits end? You don't have any wisdom whatsoever. Are you weary from everything
that's going on in your life and you just, you can't, you
don't know what to do? If that's where you are, this
is a word for you. If not, this won't help you. Because the only ones he does
this for, it says here, he gives power to the faint. To them that
have no might, he increases strength. God resisted the proud. He hates
pride. Pride is opposite of giving God
all the glory. Pride's giving us the glory.
And he hates it, because he won't share his glory. But if we're
still trying to use our wisdom and our strength, he'll wait.
If we're here and we're trying to use our wisdom and our strength,
the Lord will wait. He'll wait till we are faint,
till we have no wisdom, till we have no strength. I doubt
the younger folks are going to remember this, but you all that
are my age or close near it or older, you all know this. You
remember how Ali beat Foreman in the Thrilla in Manila? He just let Foreman punch and
punch and punch and punch and punch. I mean, what was it, 10
rounds, something like that? And Foreman wore himself out,
and then Ali whipped him, knocked him out. The Lord's gonna wait. Do you punch and punch and punch
and punch and punch and try and try and use all your wisdom and
all your strength and keep trying and keep trying until you're
just exhausted and don't have any more? Look over with me again
at Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30, verse 15. He said, Thus saith
the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning in rest
That's what waiting is right there. Returning to Christ and
just resting in Him. Believe in Him. In returning
and rest shall you be saved in quietness, in confidence, in
Him shall be your strength. And you would not, but you said,
no, we'll flee upon horses. Therefore shall you flee. We'll
ride upon the swift. Therefore shall they that pursue
you be swift. One thousand shall flee at the
rebuke of just one. At the rebuke of five shall you
flee, till you're left like a beacon upon the top of a mountain, like
an engine on a hill, till you're like a tree with all its branches
broken off, till you're like a flag up on a hill just by itself. And he said, and therefore will
the Lord wait. He gonna wait till you've punched
yourself out to gather more strength. He'll wait that he may be gracious
to you. Therefore will he be exalted.
When you don't have any strength and wisdom, that's when you're
going to exalt him as your only wisdom and strength. That's what
Joseph said. You met this for evil, but now
see how wise and strong God was to do this for me, for my good.
Therefore will he be exalted. that he may have mercy on you.
He's not going to save us by our sacrifice and our wisdom
and our good works and our, oh, we've done so much for God. He
said, I came to have mercy on sinners. That's what he's going
to do. For the Lord's a God of judgment.
My judgment's passed over. He's not delivered. No, he's
a God of judgment. That's why he's waiting. Bless
her all day. that wait for him. Here's why
he waits. For the people shall dwell in
Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shall weep no more. He'll
be gracious unto thee. When he hears the voice of your
cry, when he shall hear it, he'll answer thee. He brought Jacob
to the end of himself and all Jacob could do was hold on to
the Lord and just cry out and say, Lord, please have mercy
on me. Please bless me. Have you ever been there? You've
been to a place where you saw yourself as such a foul puddle
of nothing. that all you could do is say,
Lord, if you send me to hell, you just, I don't deserve one
thing from God. I'm standing here right here
where I'm sitting, telling you, this preacher don't deserve a
thing from God. If he sent me to hell right now,
but for saving, choosing, electing, redeeming grace, he'd be just
to do it. That's my only hope is Christ.
I don't have any more works in me right now to save me or commend
me to God than I did when I was, when I didn't know him and I
hated him and I was cussing his name every day. Christ is my own El. And if you
got anything but Christ, you got too much, you can't get in.
The way's too narrow. How narrow is it? Christ is the
way. It's that narrow. Nothing else,
nothing else but Christ. And this is what he showed Paul,
and he made Paul see, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my
strength is made perfect in weakness. It's only when we see ourselves
to be the sinner, the sinner, it's like there's not another
one on the planet but me. I'm the only sinner. That's how
my wisdom is nothing but vanity. My works are nothing but vanity. All the good I do is as the flower
of the field, the Lord blows upon it and it wilts. It's nothing. Just like Rahab, when she lied,
doing a work God commanded as a good work, every good work
you do has got sin mixed with it, every bit of it. And if it wasn't for Christ,
God could have nothing to do with me. That's so of His people. That's so of many. That's what
Paul meant when he said, He made me to see, the Lord told me,
my strength, the Lord said, my strength is made perfect in your
weakness. And he said, therefore I have
glory in mine forever. I have glory that I don't have
anything in me but weakness, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Because when I'm weak, that's
when I'm strong. When I see myself as strong,
one old writer said, our so-called strength is nothing but stumbling
blocks for us, but our weakness is not. And ain't that just opposite
to our carnal reasoning? When you're strong, oh, that's
when you're strong. God says that's when we're the
weakest. It's when you're so weak, you just need Him to help
lift your head up to Him. That's when you're strong, because
you see, He's my only salvation. He's my only salvation. And this is how he deals with
all his people, all his children. Look at verse 30. Even the youth
shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.
Now, some think this verse speaks to the Babylonians and to all
self-made religious folks who trust in their own wisdom and
their own strength. And indeed God will bring all
will worshipers, all works religionists, he'll bring them to utterly fall. There's no doubt about it. Nobody
is going to be in God's presence that has any room to say they
did one thing to have the right to be there. Nobody. Nobody. But this word's true for the
youngest child of grace too. Young men and women are physically
stronger, and so younger in the faith think they're wise and
strong. And I remember this. I was too ignorant to know I
was ignorant. And it's just so. And if it's true of the youthful,
it's true of those that are older and start thinking we're wise
and strong because of our age. Age really don't have anything
to do with it. It's God's grace. It's God's grace. And it's pride
of wisdom and strength that God will bring to nothing. That's
what he's going to bring, the pride of our wisdom and pride
of our strength. That's what God has to bring
to nothing. That's what keeps us from God. That's what keeps
us from the Lord. That's what keeps us from believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You ask sinners, talk to them
about Christ, and they'll say this, well, I'm a sinner, but
I'm not that bad. That's keeping a person from
Christ. Well, I know God. Don't say I don't know God. Keeping
a person from coming to Christ to say, Lord, would you teach
me? Would you be my wisdom? And God saves and He renews that
they that have no might, He might increase their strength. That's
the only ones He saved. Listen, when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. God saves sinners who are the
greatest, most ungodly sinners who have no ability to save ourselves
so that God gets all the glory. And that's how God's people see
ourselves. And God never lets his believing
child forget we're still weak and foolish sinners who need
Christ to be our only wisdom and our only strength, our righteousness,
our all. He won't let us stop knowing
this. Because if we stop knowing this, it's going to turn us from
Christ. And He won't let you stop knowing this. All who trust
their strength and wisdom shall faint and utterly fall. But they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew strength. They shall mount
up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. What's waiting on the Lord? Notice
the order of this. Does this sound out of order
to you? Listen to this. Those that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, flying above it all. They shall run. Come down from
flying and you run. They'll run and not be weary.
They'll walk and not faint. Doesn't it seem like it would
say you'll walk and then you'll run and then you'll fly? But
it's just the opposite. How come? Because waiting on
the Lord is beholding Christ and casting it all on Christ
and believing on Him. And this is how it starts. You
see Christ high and lifted up at the right hand of God and
you see that you're dead and your life is hid with Christ
in God and you mount up like eagles. And you go a little further. And you come down a little, and
you run. And you face troubles and troubles
and what's going on, and you walk. And you get faint, you get weary,
and he turns you back to him. You mount up with wings as eagles,
and you run. And you walk, he turns you back
to him. It's just over and over and over.
Is that your experience of grace? That's my experience of grace.
It's almost on a daily basis sometimes. There's only one way
that we're going to have this strength, and it's by faith.
by faith. It's walking by faith. It's looking
to Him by faith. It's casting all on Him by faith.
It goes against everything in our fleshly sin nature. Our fleshly
sin nature wants to save ourselves. We want to do it every day, whatever
troubles come about, because we really want to do it in our
salvation too. And it ought to be evident to
us every day that we, if he left us to ourselves, we try to save
ourselves because we try to save ourselves in temporal things
every day. But he brings you sometimes in a situation where
he shows you, you can't even save yourself in a temporal situation.
To remind you, he's the only one that does this. Now listen
to me. This work is not a one-time work. Now, he comes to you and
saves you by his grace and regeneration. That's how it starts. but He
keeps on renewing you, and renewing you, and renewing you. It's not
the works of righteousness which we've done, but according to
His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. which He shed on us abundantly,
because of Christ Jesus our Savior, because being justified by His
grace, we shall be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. He will work this and keep working it, because He justified
His people. Now he regenerates his people,
but he's got to keep renewing you. He's got to keep renewing
you. There is a doctrine that's taught in this world that once
you're called and you repent, now from the rest of your walk,
it's a co-effort between you and God. That is a damning lie.
That's a damning lie. It's not a co-effort between
you and God. Salvation's of the Lord. He'll make you willing. And He'll make you, everything
He's saying here, it's going to have an effect on you and
me. And we're going to do what He's saying here. But the only
reason He's going to bring you to wait on the Lord is by Him
hedging you up to where you can't do one thing but wait on Him. That's right. And waiting on
Him is not doing nothing. Waiting on Him It is believing
Him. It is walking by faith. It is taking all our wisdom and
all our strength and all our unbelief, which is the sin that
so easily besets us, and laying it aside and running the race
that He set before us, looking to Christ, the author and finisher
of our faith. All of these problems, every
bit of it, our sin, our self-righteousness, our weariness, our fainting,
All of it, all of it, every bit of it comes from one thing. How can I illustrate this? There's
Christ, right there. Here's what the problem is. We
turn away from Him and quit following Him. That's it. Because we're
flesh and we're grass and that's what we keep trying to do. And
His saving grace renewing us in the spirit of our mind makes
us put that old man off. You can't put that old man off
by yourself. He makes you put him off by His
power renewing you by bringing you into this place where you
can't do anything but believe Him. And by His strength and
His wisdom He turns you back to Him. And you mount up with
wings as eagles and you run. And you walk, and that's how
he keeps you from falling away, utterly falling away. It's him
doing it every single day. Can I give you one more thing,
and then I'll be done? Here's why he did this in Egypt.
I can prove to you this is why he did this in Egypt. He told
them when he first came to them and brought them out of Egypt,
he said, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I delivered
you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. And he told them,
he said, as for your nativity, he said, in the day you were
born, your navel wasn't cut, you weren't washed in water to
supple you, you weren't salted, you weren't swallowed. He's saying
to them, you were an aborted child cast out into a field,
and nobody wanted you, and you were polluted in your own blood.
The Lord said, that's how I found you. And he said, and I swallowed
you, washed you, and I swallowed you, and I clothed you, and I
decked you in my jewels, and I did all this for you. And he
said, but thou didst trust in thine own beauty and played the
harlot. We do this a thousand times a
day. And by his mercy, our Lord continues
to turn us back to him. can make us look to Him and believe
Him and follow Him. Do you know what grace that is?
Do you know what mercy that is? That He keeps saving us and saving
us and saving us and saving us. continually renewing us, bringing
us to Himself, to look away from ourselves, run this race, looking
to Him alone. And every time He does it, you
know what you say in your heart? Every single time He does it,
you say, surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
He is really my righteousness and my strength. If He weren't
my righteousness, He wouldn't keep doing this for us. If He
wasn't our strength, it wouldn't keep getting done for us, and
we keep turning back to it. He's our righteousness and our
strength. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful
face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the
light of His glory and grace. That's what He's telling us.
Amen.