May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 48, and reading verse 17. Prophecy
of Isaiah, chapter 48, and reading verse 17. Thus saith the Lord,
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God. which teacheth thee to profit,
which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. It will be a great blessing for
all of us if we know and have proved and will prove the truth
of such a word as this. because this is not the word
of a man, this is the word of Almighty God. And what a blessing
it is when we have an understanding of the wonder that Almighty God
should condescend to speak to us in such terms and in such
words as this. Surely it should be exceedingly
humbling as we might consider a statement like this. Because
the Lord says, He says He is thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel. My friends, if He is our Redeemer,
that means that we are amongst those whom He has saved. It means we've been redeemed
from our sins. What a blessing it is to have
that evidence in our hearts, and may we all know the blessing
of it. There are many things which are
irrelevant in the world today. Many things that you and I spend
a lot of time on, but the great need is to know that we have
a Redeemer, a Redeemer personal to ourselves, a personal knowledge,
that our Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ and that we have
been redeemed and as the Apostle Peter tells us so very clearly,
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. What a price then
is paid for redemption of his people. What a price is paid
if we are amongst those, the price of our redemption, the
shedding of his most Precious blood. Well this morning. Do
we do we know it? Do we appreciate it? Do we understand
it? Has it been made over to us that we do have an interest? In the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ and then we are amongst those who are not numbered and
he is our Redeemer Well, I wonder this morning if we can all confirm
before God this great truth is our Redeemer Thus saith the Lord
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. It's a great blessing
if we can say that. It's a most essential need that
we have to be able to say that. We might be very keen on having
many things, but let us remember the great important thing is
to know that Lord Jesus Christ is Our Redeemer, He has paid
the price for our sins, so they are all washed away. Everyone! There can be no sin left. If we are to go and to be with
Christ in glory, no sinner enters therein. It's only those who
are redeemed, those who have been washed in the blood of the
Lamb. And so this morning may we have
that blessed confirmation and understanding in our hearts that
we are amongst those who are his redeemed. Thus saith the
Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. God is holy. He's just. He's righteous. And to think that this great
God has been so gracious as to look upon us and called us out
of the darkness of nature into the glorious light of the everlasting
gospel. I mean, we might ask the question,
has there been that change in your life, in my life? That we've
changed, we've had that change, we've been in darkness, we've
been in pitch black, and the light has shone, and the light
is. The Lord Jesus Christ, the light
of the world, has shone into our hearts, giving us the evidence
that we're amongst those who are redeemed. Oh, my friends
this morning, may we all look into our hearts. May we be able
to discern the blessed work of the Holy Spirit of God. It's
the vital thing, it's the necessary thing. It's the one thing needful,
and may we have it and the evidence of it today, and be able to then
bless God, I'm sure. Praise waiteth for thee in Zion,
and to thee shall the vow be performed. Oh, what a blessing
if you and I possess the evidence of his grace in our hearts. And
therefore, should there not be, must there not be, praise in
our heart, thankfulness to almighty God, for his great compassion,
and his great condescension, and his great love toward us,
and that he loved us with everlasting love. What a truth, what a blessing,
what a favour, what cause to thank God and to praise his name
today. Oh my friends, may we praise
God, may we go on our way rejoicing today of the evidence of his
love toward us, to realise, yes, this God is my God. This God has died on Calvary's
tree, that cross, to save my soul. Blessed be God, then, for
the evidence of his work in our hearts. My friends, don't go
on in life just assuming everything's going to be alright. Oh, seek
earnestly. You may have the Evidence, the
positive evidence of the life of God in your souls. Sadly,
sometimes people today are satisfied with just a negative religion.
My friends, God's religion is positive. And that religion is
to know my Jesus crucified by far exceeds all things beside. Nothing less than this. will
save our souls. Let us not go on aimlessly in
this world, hoping that everything will be all right in the end,
and fall into hell. May we be on the stretch after
God. May we be on the stretch to know
that we are amongst those who are His redeemed. Oh, thus saith
the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. And so then the
Spirit of God through Isaiah speaks to us in this way. He
tells us two very sure and certain things. First of all he says,
I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit. That's the first thing. And the
second thing is, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go. So there's two clear statements
here. One, the Lord teaches, and second,
the Lord leads in the right way. And this applies to the living
Church of God, to have the evidence then that God is teaching us. Well, remember this statement
It's a teaching which is for our Prophet, who teaches thee
to profit. And so we might ask ourselves
the question as to whether the Lord is teaching us, whether
we are profiting in our spiritual life. We spend our time, don't
we, naturally in this world, Seeking natural profit. People work, don't they? That
they might profit. They might gain from their natural
work. They may benefit from it. There
may be a profit. People in business don't work
for a loss, do they? They work so they might have
a profit. And in that working, They need
to have an understanding as to what they should do so that they
might produce profit. They don't want to work and spend
their life losing money and losing goods. They want to have a right
understanding so that they might gain some profit. That's an obvious
statement, isn't it? That's what people do, isn't
it? They work for profit. Well, my friends, in a much greater
consideration. And it is so much greater, and
we must always realise that you and I are facing eternity. The things of time which people
are so concerned about, to be profitable, will soon finish
and vanish away, but our souls will live forever. And so how
necessary it is that we profit with regard to our spiritual
soul. Now this is the great statement
to those who are redeemed, and it is really an evidence that
we are amongst those who are redeemed, that the Lord is teaching
us to profit. There's a benefit through the
teaching of Almighty God. And that benefit is a spiritual
growth. It's an accumulation. People
accumulate naturally for profit. My friends, may you and I accumulate
spiritually by the teaching of Almighty God, that we may know
that the Lord is with us which teacheth thee to profit. I am
the Lord. This is the almighty God. He
teaches us to profit. We may have those evidences in
our heart that we're amongst the family of God. We are to lay up treasure in
heaven, not treasure in earth. My friends, as the Lord teaches
us, it's that profit. And what is it really? Well,
it's to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, what have we profited in
the last week? If you were to stand up one by
one and you would have to say, well, What have you learnt in
the last week? What have you been taught which
has been for your spiritual profit in the last week? Well, would
you be able to say anything? Or would you have a long face
and have to hang your head and say, well, nothing really? Now,
some people are content to go on in their life, all their life,
with nothing really. My friends, if you and I are
amongst those who are redeemed, remembering the cost of our redemption,
we will surely be concerned to be spiritually profitable in
the things of God, and to have the evidence that this Almighty
God is teaching us to profit. Now, the teaching of God is divine. The teaching of God is very deep,
and the teaching of God is sure, and it perhaps doesn't follow
the pattern that we might think. The hymn writer says, we don't
learn it as schoolboys learn their task. God teaches us to
profit, and he brings us into situations where there are two
things really developed. And that is to realise our true
condition before our Holy God and to realise then His great
mercy and His great grace and His great love. Now all these
are those things which this God teaches us as we journey on through
life. And the blessing is that God's
teaching will be for the profit of our souls. And it's good,
you know, if you can come to the end of this week which has
just passed and to realise God has been teaching me. It may not have been very comfortable.
The Lord may have taught you things that you were doing wrong. That you weren't perhaps praying
in a right way. Perhaps you were praying for
those things which weren't going to be profitable for you in the
long term. And the truth is that that which
God showed you was profitable because it directed you to the
reality of spiritual blessings and turned you away from just
concentrating on the things of life. So easily we've come become directed to things which do not
profit. I'm talking here, of course,
about the spiritual prophet. The devil, be sure of this, wants
you and me to spend our life on things that do not profit.
And he'll make every attempt to persuade you to turn away
from the things of God. And he's a very strong foe. because
he knows what our weaknesses are. And there's many times of
temptation the Lord brings into our lives to tempt us, to turn
us away, turn our attention away from the things of God, to distract
us into things which do not profit. My friends, the blessing is that
the Lord The Lord God directs us into things that do profit. He teaches us in things that
do profit. Well, can we look back last week
and observe something that God has taught us? Something that
we've learnt? You know, if you If you've gone
on just in the world, prayerless and not reading the word of God,
you won't have been taught anything perhaps. But you see, if you've
been really concerned about the health of your soul, and that's
the real thing isn't it? The health of our soul. Whether
we are healthy. And you see, if we're healthy,
it means that we'll be alive and lively, won't it? We won't
be asleep, we won't be dormant. If we're alive and lively, we'll
be very alert. And we'll be seeking for the
evidence that God is teaching us. And that teaching really
centres upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we've been concentrating
on those things which haven't directed us to Christ. directed
us to the things of this world. And we haven't been amongst those
who have been blessed in this way. Now, here is the gracious
words, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit. How important it is then. It
was important in Isaiah's day, wasn't it, to Israel And Judah,
in the days in which he lived, that they might be taught by
the Lord. And how needful for you and me
today to be taught by the Lord. You think of the Word of God
from Genesis to Revelation. All the words, how many there
are, the truth of God, My friends, God teaches us. He instructs
us through His Word. So, have you read the Word of
God this week? Have you read it? I'm assuming
you have. Let's assume you have. God knows
if you haven't. But if you have read the Word
of God this week, has God taught you anything from His Word? Has the Lord revealed something
to your soul, something which you could meditate on, something
therefore which has been profitable for you. Or do you think you've gone past
that? Do you think you know everything? Some people today do, they think
they know everything. Well my friends, the evidence of the
work of God in the soul is to show to us, the more he teaches
us, the less we seem to know, because the Word of God expands,
the truth of God gets more wonderful, the majesty of God is greater. The Lord teaches in this way because
his teaching is to magnify himself and to lower ourselves in our
estimation. This is how God teaches. Well,
what views have you had this week with regard to Almighty
God? What have you meditated on this
week? If you've read something in the
Word of God, without any doubt you would have read something
of His greatness and His might and His power and His glory.
Well, have you been instructed by it? Have you rejoiced in it? Have you praised God for it? Remember, it's the Lord that's
doing this. And to think that Almighty God
deals with us individually, those for whom he's redeemed. He's
instructing us and he's teaching us for the profit of our souls. So there is that benefit. Yes,
it's not something which is of no value. It's profitable. Profitable. for our eternal souls
to know the truth of God. Well, you can trace it back,
can't you? You can trace it back from Genesis,
in the beginning God. I wonder perhaps if God showed
to us and taught us something perhaps in the greatness and
the glory of creation. It's around us, isn't it, and
we don't absorb it as we should perhaps. We see the wonder of
God's creation. It's the same God who has redeemed
us, who's done all these things in creation. And as God therefore
instructs us by his greatness of creation, it's one of those
wonderful blessings so that God is lifted up in our estimation
as we see what a great God we have. And a God who holds our
life in His hands, our breath in His hands. You see, this is
the greatness of our God, to realise you and I are being taught
by this God. You know, we go to school, don't
we? We go to university to learn, don't we? And people teach us,
don't they? But to think that God teaches
us. Just ponder that for a moment.
Almighty God takes you, as it were, in His class, as though
there's no one else there. And He teaches you. He teaches
you about Himself. My friends, as the Lord teaches
us that, we become very small in our own estimation. We're
humbled before Almighty God. My friends, it's God's teaching.
And you know, this teaching, as we see the greatness of God,
we realise then his infinite mercy toward us. And he shows
us. He hasn't left us. You see, if
we're redeemed, we haven't been left. We haven't been cast away. He's been gracious to us, and
he's called us, and now he's instructing us. And life is a
continual time of learning. We're always learning. Never
think you know everything. You never will. The greatness
of God is so great. We can never possibly know everything
this side of the grave. I am the Lord thy God which teaches
thee to profit. Well, what profit then have we
had? This is something that we should
always be concerned about, that we are profiting, that we're
being taught and we're profiting in the things of God. that the
Lord is graciously revealing to us more of His truth, more
of His great and glorious plan of salvation, the wonderful fulfilment
of that plan in the life of the Saviour, the amazing prophecies
that we read of in the Word of God. To rejoice in these truths
as the Lord comes and teaches us, as He shows us, He reveals
His truth to our souls. Well, what has God taught us
then in the last week? It's good, isn't it, to just
think sometimes people, they just are content, as it were,
with something that they learned years ago and they just settle
down. They settle down and they think,
well, that's all right, I needn't worry anymore. But you see, the
true living child of God desires this, that their life might show
forth God's praise. And if that is so, we will be
concerned to be found profiting from the teaching of Almighty
God. So that teaching may show in
our life and that it may therefore bring praise and honour to Almighty
God. We should not therefore consider
and be satisfied with settling down. The Apostle Paul was a
man greatly blessed, and you can read, as you know, in the
Corinthians of the wonderful blessings that he had. wonderful revelations, glorious
teachings of Almighty God, which was the prophet of his soul.
But the apostle was on the stretch after God. He wanted to know more of a crucified
Saviour. He did, of course, know the crucified
Saviour. He did know Him. The Lord had
revealed Himself in a very wonderful way. The Apostle wanted to know
more. Now that surely shows the true
blessing, the life of God in our souls. And so the Apostle
spoke of the great blessings that he'd had of his childhood and how he was brought
up, and the blessing that had been to him. But he tells us
what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. You see, his profiting was in
the knowledge of Christ. And he speaks in that third chapter
of Philippians, these very clear and powerful words. He says,
yea, doubtless. There is no doubt. about these
words. And it's good if you and I recognise
the truth of this, because this will really be profitable for
our souls. We will therefore be concerned
about being healthy, like the Apostle. He says, Doubtless I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. He esteemed the knowledge of
the Lord far greater than all the things of this world. And he counted them but loss.
I count all things but loss. Well, we perhaps are worried
about profitability and natural things. But the Apostle Paul,
he tells us here, he counts all things but loss. His great concern
was to be taught and to profit in the things of God, for whom,
he says, I have suffered the loss of all things, and do countenance
but done that I may win Christ." Well, my friends, that's a wonderful
statement, isn't it? And I expect, if we're honest,
none of us can really truthfully say such a word as that or pray
such a prayer as that. But you see, here is the evidence. I am the Lord thy God which teaches
thee to profit. The apostle wanted this, and
he says then, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Well, there was a time in the
Apostle's life when he wanted to be thought well of. He was
a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He had a good knowledge of all
the Old Testament law and ceremonies, and he wanted to be thought well
of because of all that. But now, oh, you see, there has
been that great and glorious change, and what he desires now
is so different. He says, to be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. He had to leave behind
all that which was the work of the flesh, and yet to rely upon
that which God had given him, that faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, this living faith,
this blessed faith, this glorious faith. as the Apostle spoke when he
wrote to the Hebrews and what a wonderful statement it was
that he was able to make and to declare, he says, for without
faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God
must believe and that he is and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him And he commenced the 11th of Hebrews
with, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. And it is this great and blessed
faith, therefore, that the apostle is able to set before us. And so he says, I've suffered
the loss of all things. And counten them but done that
I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ." Christ gives faith then to believe the truth of God. And you know this teaching sometimes
is just like this. The Spirit of God comes upon
us and gives us that faith to believe the great truths of the
everlasting gospel. You may think, well that's a
very obvious statement. Well, it's when the Word of God
applies his Word to our hearts with power that we're able then
to believe. And it's his faith, the faith
that he gives us. The faith that he gives us to
believe what wonderful teaching it is, and what prophet it is. If the Lord has spoken to us
and given us that faith to believe this, the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith. Oh then, have you been
shown, have you been taught that you possess the blessed gift
of faith? It's not something that you've
produced, not something you've fabricated, but it's that which
God has given you and that by grace you received it. Oh, this
will be food for the soul, this will be something you'll rejoice
in, this will be a revelation that he's teaching you to profit
and you have the evidence that you are amongst those whom he
has redeemed. Well, have you enjoyed that blessing
in the past week? He enjoyed the blessing in the
past week like that, my friends. And so he goes on, and he speaks
in this way, that I may know Him. So he wanted to know Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, you children, you may be
studying at school and university. You may be learning a lot of
things. But you know, what a blessing. What a wonder if God is teaching
you to pray like this, that I may know him, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's more important than anything
else. That I may know him. And he goes
on, the power of his resurrection. Meditate on that. Resurrection
produces life from the dead. Think of the power in that. That's
the power that the Apostle desired. The power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. He wanted fellowship with Christ
and fellowship in his sufferings. That means that as Christ endured
the curse for us, as Christ paid the price for our sins by that
sin atoning death upon that cross of Calvary, to be blessed with
communion and fellowship with Christ in these things. Now,
if the Spirit of God, my friends, has directed you into these truths,
what has it been which teacheth thee to profit? It's been profitable
because it's been a blessing for your soul. You understand
what the dear apostle was able to say. If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, everything else
was really quite worthless. But here was a great benefit
and a great blessing that he was concerned about that might
be profitable to his eternal soul. that he might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. Well, we could go on, but just
to come to this point, he then says, I pressed toward the mark
for the prize of the high courting of God in Christ Jesus. He was pressing towards the end
of the race. We're all in a race, and that
race, my friends, will end one day. And the apostle was pressing
towards it. He wasn't letting the things
of this world drag him back. He was pressing towards the blessing
and the prize of eternal life. I, says the apostle, I am the
Lord, thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth
thee by the way that thou shouldest go. Now it's a great blessing for
us today if we have the evidence that Almighty God is leading
us in this divine way, this way of being taught, this way of
profiting in the things of God. There are many ways, there's
a broad way, and many broad ways that leads to destruction. But
there is a narrow way. which leads to eternal life.
And in that narrow way is the blessing of fellowship with Christ. And so, to his redeemed people,
he speaks in this way. He leads us in the way that we
should go. Oh, bless God, to be led by his
Spirit, led indeed in that right way. that way which leads to
eternal life. We're all travelling, aren't
we? In this world we're travelling day by day. Every day. Every day, the day nearer, the
day of our eternal home. My friends, may that eternal
home be a home in glory. May we have the evidence that
we are therefore journeying in that way by the proof of this
verse being worked out in our souls, to know that we are dealing,
or rather that God is dealing with our souls, that God is teaching
us, that God is instructing us. It's good to be able to have
the evidence of God's grace and God's blessing toward us as we
journey on. in our spiritual life. We've
been blessed here as a church and people to hear sometimes
some people's testimony who've been in the way a long, long
time. And perhaps they have a lot to be able to declare of God's
goodness and mercy towards them. If we are spiritually being taught
It won't be that the Lord doesn't show us anything. We will be
growing spiritually and we should be concerned not for our own
gratification but for the honour and glory of our God so that
our hearts may be filled with praise and thanksgiving for what
he's done for us. The Church of God rejoice in
hearing his work, his work appearing in the life of one another and
those things which he's shown them, he's taught them. Oh bless God if we have that
living evidence of the life of God in our souls to realise here
we have a God who is teaching us and therefore leading us in
the way that we should go. That good way, that right way,
that safe way. And remember the Lord Jesus himself
said, I am the way. I am the way. There's only one
right way and that's to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life. Well, this morning my friends
have you and I the evidence in our hearts that the Lord is teaching
us to profit and showing to us that we are His sheep, those
that He has redeemed, those for whom He has shed His most precious
blood for, those for whom He has laid down His life, His sheep. Now His sheep hear His voice. And may we have the evidence
then in our hearts that the Lord has spoken to us through His
encouraged us, taught us, taught us to profit. We want to be found
amongst those who are profiting in the things of God. There's
something to declare, there's something to show forth, that
we haven't been left, we haven't been forsaken, that God is with
us and God is teaching us. see this teaching is for his
honour and for his glory. And it is that you and I may
be able to show forth his praise, to declare what he's done for
our souls, so that his name may be honoured and glorified. This great truth in this word
is that he might be honoured and glorified and that we might
be encouraged and blessed And so remember these words, thus
saith the Lord. They're not the words of man,
they're the words of almighty God. Thy Redeemer, oh, can we
all say that this morning? Thy Redeemer, my Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teaches thee
to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go. Amen.