Thank you, dear brother. No longer
from California, Evansville, Indiana now, and we're thankful
to be there. I told the folks over at the
conference in Danville this last weekend, instead of four days
of having to travel to be there, it was just a little over four
hours, which is a lot better. And instead of eight or nine
tanks of gas, it's a little over half a tank, and that's much
better. And I'm thankful to be a part of this congregation.
I thank the Lord for bringing us here, and I have been blessed
immensely under Pastor David Edmondson's teaching and preaching,
and I just delighted in what I heard from Larry Brown this
morning. It comforted my heart so much,
maybe because I'm a hell-deserving sinner saved by the grace of
God. I think that's why that message blessed me. I missed
all of you last Sunday, and many of the folks over at the Danville
Conference sent their love and greetings. Boy, it was a good
conference, and we enjoyed it so much. Every message that I
had the honor of hearing pointed me to Christ, and that's what
I need. That's what Brother Larry Brown
brought out this morning. Then we heard in the men's meeting
the scripture from Isaiah 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And it's the gospel. It's the
gospel of Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for his chosen
blood-bought children that comforts the heart. And I know every enlightened
child of God here in this assembly say amen to that. Shelly sends
her love and greetings. She just woke up about three
o'clock this morning, suffering with allergies and did not get
back to sleep. When she called us, she was just
dying with one of those headaches that goes along with allergy
problems and just had to excuse herself from coming. And so we
pray for her as well. Would you please turn in your
Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 62. While we were at the conference,
just as we were leaving, it was on Sunday afternoon after the
last message and after the fellowship dinner, Judy and I met a young
man, a young African-American by the name of Abraham. I introduced
myself, I introduced Judy, and he said, aren't you one of the
men that preached during this conference? I said, I had that
honor, yes. He said, I have a question. How
do you preachers see Christ in every scripture you use for your
text? I said, well, the running theme
throughout the Bible is Christ, and it's the business of God's
preachers to get our hearers on that path that leads to Him
as soon as possible. And then I quoted the scripture
in Luke, where he was inspired of God to write about our Lord's
walk with the two on the road to Emmaus, after he had risen
from the dead. And Luke wrote these words that
Christ himself, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. The Holy
Spirit moved Luke to write those words. And I told that young
man, if our Lord Jesus took from the Scriptures and preached Himself
everywhere He turned, well He didn't turn, He just quoted the
Scriptures. Everywhere He quoted the Scriptures,
He preached Himself. We're on pretty safe ground if
that's what we do. Matter of fact, if we don't do that, we're
not God's preachers. If we're not preaching Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, we're false preachers and we should
not be in any pulpit. But you can't tell them that
because they think they're right. And we probably did too at one
time until God Himself came to us under the preaching of His
glorious gospel and caused our hearts to burn within us like
Those two on the road to Emmaus burned within, saying, did not
our hearts burn within us when He opened unto us the Scriptures?
Read in this whole Bibles about Jesus Christ. All about Him. Who He is. He's God Almighty. He's not a God, He's God Almighty. He's our great creator who became
a man for the purpose of saving his people and he got the job
done. Our Lord Jesus didn't try to redeem us, he redeemed us
and we belong to him lock, stock, and barrel because of what he
accomplished for us at Calvary over 2,000 years ago. He is now
risen from the dead and is on His sovereign throne of power,
ruling this whole universe and everything in it. And we can
trust Him. We can trust what His Word says
about what He accomplished for us, leaning back into His everlasting
arms, knowing without a shadow of a doubt. that He, by His precious
blood, removed every spot and stain from His people from God's
sight forever. I get blessed every time I hear
that. Now, Brother Larry brought out this truth so plain in his
lesson this morning that the Old Testament prophets wrote
of Christ. They spoke of Him. He's coming. While He was here on this earth,
those who saw Him, those who heard Him preach, those whose
minds were enlightened by the power of God the Holy Spirit,
they said, He has come. We, God's preachers, and those
who are faithful witnesses of His grace, we say, He has gone
to heaven, but He's coming again. He's coming again. I know that. I don't know when, but I know
He's coming again. And He's going to receive us
unto Himself that where He is there we may be also. He promises
that. Well here in Isaiah 62, someone
referred to Isaiah as the Romans, the book of Romans in the Old
Testament. Here in Isaiah 62, Isaiah is prophesying about the coming of the Lord.
In verse 8 we read this, Isaiah 62 verse 8, The Lord hath sworn
by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I
will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies, and
the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which
thou hast labored. Now it is true, it is true that
under that old mosaic economy, God allowed the enemies at times
to win battles over his chosen people, Israel. When they transgressed,
when they bowed down to the gods of other nations, when they burnt
incense in the high places, sometimes God would use other nations as
whipping sticks to punish his children. And they did. The enemies of
Israel did eat the corn and drink the wine of national Israel. But this is referring to the
true bread that comes from heaven, Jesus Christ. and the Holy Spirit,
which signifies the wine that makes the heart glad. When we
experience the miracle of the new birth, when God delivers
us out of the power of darkness, translating us into the eternal
kingdom of his Son, we feast on Christ. Our hearts are made
glad by the power of the Holy Spirit every time we hear about
Him and what He accomplished for us when He laid down His
life for His sheep. And the strangers cannot feast
on Christ, they don't have the Holy Spirit to reveal Him, to
point us to that very one that God the Father sent to redeem
us with His own precious blood. We have that, and nobody's going
to take it from us. God will never take His Holy
Spirit from us. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance, irrevocable. Those that come into a living
union with the true and living God, Jesus Christ, are His forever. Isn't that good? That's wonderful. Look at verse 9. But they that
have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord. And they
that have brought it together shall drink in the courts, now
catch this, God says, of My holiness. The courts of My holiness. That's wherever God's saints
assemble together to worship and praise the Lord Jesus. That's
where we come together in His name, giving Him all the glory
for His unspeakable gift, eternal life through Christ our risen
Savior. It's the courts of God's holiness. We're meeting right here this
morning in one of the courts of God's holiness. Wherever two
or more are gathered in His name, He's in our midst. It's the courts
of God's holiness. Our little church in rescue is having a problem. I was talking
to the interim pastor just yesterday and they don't know if it's because
of the fires that are in that area or what, but the whole area
is infested with fleas. And John's had to bid fleas.
And he brought an exterminator in yesterday and they supposed
to have exterminated all those fleas, but they're still in the
carpet. And they won't die until they come to the surface of the
carpet where the exterminator sprayed the flea-killing stuff. I don't know what you call it.
But anyway, he said, I don't know what to do. I can't let
the people go in there tomorrow. Those fleas are still in there.
And I advised him, maybe just, there's right across the parking
lot there's a room behind the post office that you can rent.
I said, see if you can rent that, it won't cost you very much.
He said, maybe I can just meet outside. I said, sure, we've
got three and a half acres there, a big part of it is lawn, there's
nice shade trees. Well, if they're meeting outside
this morning, which they'll start in just a couple hours, that's
one of the courts of God's holiness. It doesn't matter whether we're
in a building, out under a tree, in a home. If we're there worshiping
the true and living God, that's one of the courts of God's holiness,
and God Himself tells us He meets with us where we meet to worship
Him. Look at verse 10. Go through
Go through the gates, prepare ye the way of the people. Cast
up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones, lift up a standard
for the people. Now in verse 9, we read that
God's strong right arm is there. But they that have gathered shall
eat it and praise the Lord. No, it's not verse 9, verse 8.
The Lord hath sworn by His right hand. Jesus Christ is God's strong
right arm. He's God's right hand. All power
in heaven and earth has been given to him. And verse 10 alludes
to the cities of refuge that we read about in the Old Testament. There were six of them strategically
placed throughout the land of Canaan where a man, if he has
accidentally killed another man, say he was chopping wood and
the head of the axe came off and hit a man and it killed him,
the cities of refuge were placed where a runner could run from
the avenger of blood back under the old mosaic economy if a man
accidentally killed another man. a close relative could avenge
his blood and kill the man who was responsible. So these cities
of refuge were placed where a man in any given day could run and
reach one of those cities. And it was the responsibility
of the governors of those cities to make sure that the pathway
that led to the city was cleared of all debris, nothing to obstruct
the runner from reaching that city. The high places were brought
low, the low places were brought up. There's a good even smooth
path that led to the city clearly marked by signs so that the runner
would not have to hesitate when he got to a fork in the road,
he'd see a sign pointing to the city of refuge and run and run
through the gates of that city, and be free from the avenger
of blood. Well, this is pointing to God's
preachers, go through, go through the gates, prepare you the way
of the people, cast up, cast up the highway, gather up the
stones, lift up the standard for the courts, for the people. Jesus Christ is the standard
we lift up. And we tear down the high places
That's man's ungodly pride, thinking he can offer something to gain
favor with God. We've got to preach the truth
concerning man's fallen condition. Let men and women know that we
all fell in Adam, and we have nothing to offer in exchange
for our soul. And we have to fill in the low
places. There is not a sinner in that state of total depravity
who is too sinful to come to Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. It doesn't matter how intelligent
you are, how wealthy you are, how prominent a person you might
be, and it doesn't matter how sinful you are, there's only
one way to gain favor with God, and that's through Jesus Christ
who satisfied the holy justice of God in our room instead when
he offered up that supreme sacrifice for the sins of his people. He's
the standard. And we're to tell everybody that
we have the opportunity to preach to. Jesus Christ is not a way. He is the only way to God. We must come to Him. Surrender
ourselves completely over to Him. Offer nothing but what Jesus
Christ accomplished for us, believing on Him for eternal salvation. Then we read in verse 11, Behold,
the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye
to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold,
his reward is with him, and his work before him. Now remember,
Isaiah is prophesying of the coming Messiah. And we, as God's
preachers, we tell those who are under our preaching that
He has come. But Isaiah said, He is coming.
Say unto the end of the world, and to the daughter of Zion,
that's the church, say unto them, Behold, thy salvation cometh.
He was coming. Jesus Christ is our salvation.
And He was coming. He was on His way. Now He has
come. He is our salvation. And His
work is before us. What is His work? His work was
before God the Father who was pleased with everything His Son
did. A voice came from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And by his perfect obedience,
and he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
by his perfect obedience, he established a perfect righteousness
for all of those who were promised to him in the eternal covenant
of grace by God the Father. Brethren, I don't know how to
really put this into words where we can just rest in what He has
done for us. We were in Christ when He walked
on this earth. His obedience is ours if our
faith is in Him and only in Him. When He pleased the Father, those
who were in Him pleased the Father. When He spoke the truth and the
thoughts that He had in His mind, And the events that he accomplished,
the things that he did, the miracles he performed, all of those things,
every step he took, was perfect. Perfect. And what we heard from
our brother Larry Brown just a few moments ago, from Hebrews
chapter 10, by his one supreme sacrifice, he perfected us forever. God sees us in His darling Son. Well pleased. Well pleased in
His sight. That's not in me. Every step
I take is crooked and wrong. My words, my thoughts, my deeds. But in Christ, I have the blessed
assurance from my Heavenly Father that nothing can be laid to my
charge. I'm perfect in Christ Jesus.
And then He went to the cross, was made sin for us. Isaiah in the 53rd chapter tells
us that the iniquities of us all were laid on Him. He bore
in His body our sins when He hung there on that tree. Our
sins. Every one of them. Not just up
to the time when we're delivered, but all of our sins, past, present,
and future were laid on our substitute. I love what you brought out,
Larry, about free from guilt. And I see my sinful self every
day. And I know in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. But in my substitute, all of
my sins were already punished. God punished me in Christ. He took care of my sin debt by
the supreme sacrifice of Himself. Removing all of my sins, all
of the sins of His chosen people, from God's sight forever. Does
that bless you? I tell you what, it blesses me.
When I read that Jesus Christ by himself purged my sins, and
that God has removed them as far as the east is from the west,
I just absolutely praise my Lord for what he accomplished for
me, knowing that when this is all over, Because of my Savior's
substitutionary death, I'm going to spend eternity in the presence
of the One who loved me and gave Himself for me, giving Him all
the glory for what He accomplished for me. Now, look at that 12th verse. And they shall call them, the
holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and thou shalt be called
sought out, a city not forsaken. Who are the they? Verse 12 says,
and they shall call them, call these sinners saved by grace,
the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. I believe The word
they refers to the great three in one. God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now God is of one mind who can
turn him, and he changes not. I was just sharing with my wife
just yesterday. It's one thing if I call her
or any of God's chosen people holy. But it's quite another
if God himself calls me holy. Now all scripture is given by
inspiration of God. Even the punctuation is very
important for us to notice. They shall call them, there's
a comma after the word them. The holy people, there's a comma
after the word people. the redeemed of the Lord. Then
there's a semicolon that separates those two statements, the holy
people and the redeemed of the Lord, to show us that the thought
is still there, but there's a little difference in those statements. But the comma between holy people
and the redeemed of the Lord joins them together. There's
no way that we can be holy in God's sight without being redeemed
by the blood of Jesus Christ. They go together. He didn't try
to redeem us. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. That's past tense. So if we were
purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are, if we're
God's people, if we're purchased by His blood, and John tells
us this in 1 John, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us
from all sin. All sin. That's good news for a sinner.
God has sent his darling son to this sin-cursed earth to do
just what no one or anything else can do, and that's to remove
our sins as far as the east is from the west, where God remembers
them against us no more. Brethren, I'm telling you the
truth. If our faith is in Jesus Christ and only in Jesus Christ,
if we believe what the Word of God says concerning Him, we have
a promise from God Himself that nothing can be laid to our charge.
Nothing. We're redeemed. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. These people who are preaching
God loves everybody and Jesus Christ died for everybody, they're
liars. They're liars. And then they
accuse us of not inviting people to come to Christ. I've been
pointing you to Christ ever since I started preaching. That's not
true. We want people to come to Christ. But God will not allow
anybody to come to Him except through His only begotten Son
who paid the redemption price in full for us. That's the only
way. That's the only way we can come
to God. Through Jesus Christ. So He calls us His holy people. the redeemed of the Lord. Then
he says, and thou shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken. Where were we when Jesus Christ
brought us under the preaching of his gospel? We were dead in
trespasses and sins, graveyard dead. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loves us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. God
found us, wallowing in that cesspool of iniquity, and I don't know
about any of you, I think I do, but I know about this hell-deserving
sinner, I liked what I was doing. I enjoyed the sinful life I was
living, until one day God made me miserable, convicted me of
what was waiting for me because of my sins against him, preparing
my heart to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. My Lord Jesus,
the great shepherd of the sheep, is the one who sought me out.
I was not seeking him. No hell deserving sinner, saved
by the grace of God, was seeking God in our unregenerate state. There is none that seeketh after
God. No not one. But when He dealt with our heart, letting
us know that we deserve nothing but His eternal wrath, and that
we have nothing to offer, in exchange for our eternal soul.
That's when, by the power of God the Holy Spirit working in
us, we begin to seek the Lord. And He revealed Himself under
the preaching of His gospel, letting us know who He is, like
I said earlier. He's God. He's God who knows
our every thought. He looks right down deep within.
He knows what we're trusting in and what we're not trusting
in. He knows if we're trying to mix our works with His grace,
which will not, cannot be. They won't mix. It's either all
of grace or all of works. And we know it's not of works.
By God's grace, He not only enlightened our minds, He made us willing
in a day of His power to come to Christ by faith, lay hold
on Him and trust Him for our eternal souls. He sought us out
and He revealed to us that we're members of His heavenly Jerusalem,
a city not forsaken. God promises us that He will
never forsake us, never leave us. When our Lord Jesus cried out,
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? We were forsaken in Him, in Christ
our substitute. He will never forsake us again.
He has promised us eternal life, and God cannot lie. And He tells
us in the 14th chapter of John, You believe in God? Believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
that where I am, there you may be also. He was going to glory,
but he had to go to the cross first. He had to lay down his
life for his people. He had to satisfy the holy justice
of God for those who were chosen in him before the foundation
of the world. He had to go to a bar man's tomb. He had to be
buried. Then he had to come out of the
grave. Then he had to ascend to glory. And he's there right
now. He has entered into heaven itself.
there to appear in the presence of God for us. He's our heavenly
advocate. He pleads our cause. We didn't
know this until we experienced the miracle of the new birth.
And when we experience that, those truths just jumped out.
And we rejoice in the new heart God has given us for what Jesus
Christ has done for us. And we bow down and we worship
Him. Folks, listen, I'm not denying
the Father. I'm not denying the Holy Spirit. I am telling you,
Jesus Christ is the true and living God. In Him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And when we worship Jesus Christ,
who is the object of all worship? God ordained it before time began,
and God the Father is the one who highly exalted Him, and has
given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
You are not worshiping God if you don't worship His Son, giving
Him the same glory we would give God the Father. honoring him
with our whole body, soul, and spirit, praising the very one
who suffered and bled and died for us, who is now seated on
his sovereign throne of power, dealing with each one of us as
it pleases him. It's God who works in us, both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. Give Him all the glory. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ.
Trust Him no matter what comes our way. Trust Him for everything
that He has promised. Receive Him as only we can by
the gift of God's faith to us. Amen. Thank you.