Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me now to Isaiah chapter 56. Isaiah chapter 56. And I've entitled this, Salvation
and a Complaint. Salvation and a Complaint. Read this with me in Isaiah 56,
verses 1 and 2. It says, Thus saith the Lord,
Keep ye judgment, and do justice. For my salvation is near to come,
and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth
this, the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the
sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hands from doing
any evil. In these two verses, we are going
to see first of all the salvation. Now, the complaint comes in verse
3. Our Lord said after He declares
His salvation, He declares the duty of those that are saved,
He now anticipates or prophesies of our complaint. He says, Neither
let the son of the stranger that had joined himself to the Lord
speak, saying, Here's the first complaint. The Lord hath utterly
separated me from his people. Neither let the eunuch say, and
this is the second complaint, behold, I am a dry tree. And in the rest of this, the
Lord is going to answer those complaints. From verse 4 until
verse 8, he gives us the answer. I always like that, don't you?
If there's a complaint, or there's a trouble or there's a difficulty,
the Lord, first of all, declares what? Salvation. Isn't that the
most important thing? And then after He declares His
salvation, He understands our situation. He understands how
we must live in this world and in this body of death. And so
He anticipates our complaint and then graciously answers. So we'll see this, I hope, the
Lord willing, tonight. First of all, let's see this.
Salvation declared. Salvation declared. Here the
Lord Himself speaks, the Sovereign Creator of all things, and declares
to His people Israel. Listen to this. He says this
to you and me. You are His people. He says this
to us. Keep ye judgment and do justice. And in the midst of all our affliction,
in the very teeth of our trouble, what is God telling us to do?
Do good. Do good. Walk uprightly. You see how God, who saved us,
commands us to walk in this world. He commands us, listen, Keep
ye judgment. Do justice. Isn't this exactly
what the Apostle said in Titus chapter 2 when he said, For the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching
us. What does the grace of God teach
you? Does it teach you licentiousness? Does it teach you laziness? Does
it teach you to sin at will? No. He says the grace of God
teaches us denying ungodliness and worldly lust that we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly. Now, when are you going
to do that? Are you going to wait to heaven
to live soberly, righteously? He said, no, in this present
world. That's what grace teaches us. Grace teaches us to live this
way. If you go over to Ephesians, look at this in Ephesians. I'm
just going to give you an outline. I'm not going to go through all
chapter 5 of this, but it's there for you to see. He says, Be ye
followers of God as dear children. Imitators. Listen. Walk in love. Now, if you want to know how
to walk, walk in love. You want to know how to keep
judgment and do justice, here it is. Walk in love. Walk in
love. How? As Christ loved you. Now,
you learn how Christ loved you, and that's how you're to love.
You're to love one another as Christ loved you. Now, that's
how you walk. In verses 3 through 9, He takes the love that we're
to have and He sets it against the love of the world. What's
the love of the world? Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness. Don't let that be named among
you. Now, why do you say that? Because it can be named among
you. It can be. That's why He says, don't let
it be. Because it can be. And if you
are walking in love, listen, you won't do that. If you're
walking in love to Christ and His people, you can't walk in
this other. And in verse 10, he says, prove
what is acceptable by the Word of God. Proving what is acceptable. You want to know what's acceptable?
How do you know what's acceptable? You have any questions about
what's acceptable? What proves that? The Word of God. Go to
the Word of God. You want to know how to be a
husband or how to be a wife or how to be a child as a believer
in Christ? You want to know? Prove what
is acceptable by the Word of God, not by how you feel or what
you think. Why, that changes, doesn't it?
Anybody change their mind today? Anybody change how they feel
today? When you feel this way today, you'll feel some way tomorrow.
It doesn't matter how we feel or what we think. We walk by
love, not by the love the world has, and we prove what's good. We reprove the works of darkness
simply by declaring the gospel, preaching the gospel. Isn't this
reproving the works of darkness? It does. We redeem the time,
the Scripture says, because the days are evil. Learn to redeem
the time. Our time is short, friend. This is how we're to
walk in this world. Verse 18 says, walk in the Spirit.
Don't be drunk in excess of wine, but be filled with the Spirit. And then it goes on, by being
filled with the Spirit, how do we treat one another? He tells
you how. Wives, submit yourselves to your
husband. Husbands, love your wives. Chapter 6 and verse 1,
children, obey your parents. See, this is living soberly,
righteously and godly in this present world. This is exactly
what our text is telling us, isn't it? It says, keep judgment
and do justice. Walk humbly before thy God. That's how a believer is to walk.
We're to walk humbly before our God. And then he continues in
that chapter 6 of putting on the whole armor of God. Now then, that's what the first
part of that verse in our text means. It's how a believer is
to walk. Now then, we know this, that
we who are saved, that none of these things has anything to
do with our salvation. Not one thing. Your love to God
or your love to man has nothing to do with your salvation. That
didn't help your salvation one bit. How you treat your wife
or how you treat your husband, how you treat your... That has
nothing to do with our salvation. We do none of these things for
salvation. Right? Why do we do these things? We do these things because of
salvation. You see, I do these things because
I am saved. Not to be saved. Look at Romans
chapter 12, isn't this exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter
12 verse 1? Romans chapter 12 and verse 1,
look at what Paul says. He says, I beseech you, therefore
brethren, by the mercies of God. Because of the mercies of God,
because of the salvation of God, what are we to do? Present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. You
see, the mercies of God made you holy and acceptable, didn't
it? Now, what are you doing? You're
just presenting what He did. He gave you holiness and acceptance,
and what are you doing in return? You're giving it back. That's
all you do. You place what He gave you at
His feet. You sacrifice your body, not
just your philosophy, not just your doctrine. This is a literal
sacrifice. Your body. That means everything you have
and everything you are. And listen, it's your reasonable
service. Christ never asked you to do
anything that's not reasonable. Considering what He did, is it
just not reasonable to offer everything to Him. It is. As we know, we by nature can
never do this for salvation. We can never keep judgment or
do justice for salvation. We can never obey the law. Even
when we first heard of Christ and His perfect salvation, we,
listen, we couldn't even come. We couldn't even come to Him
for salvation. Except He what? Except He called
us with an effectual calling. In Ephesians 1 it tells us that
the eyes of our understanding were enlightened. How? By the exceeding great working
of His power. That's how our eyes were enlightened.
We didn't know anything of that. We couldn't understand any of
it except God opened our understanding. But what was it that drew us?
What did God use to draw us? It was His power, but what was
it that He used to draw us? It was the gospel of Christ,
wasn't it? It was the gospel of love. It
was a gospel of grace. It was a gospel of mercy that
drew us to Him. He said, I will draw you with
the cords of a man. I'm going to draw you with bands
of affection. And that's what drew us. We were
ruined. We had nothing. We were dead. And what did He
say? Live. Isn't that loving? Isn't that gracious? It is to
a dead man. It is to a man who is ruined.
It's to a sinner. Forgiveness is the greatest thing
to who? A sinner. You see, if you're
not a sinner, forgiveness don't mean much. If you ain't so bad,
forgiveness, that's not really love. That's not a whole lot
of love. I don't need much forgiveness.
Oh, but you need forgiveness. We who do need forgiveness, we
see it as the love. And this is the message that
we heard. Listen, go back to your text.
Here's the message word. Do this, why? For my salvation
is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. We know this, that this text
is speaking of Jesus Christ. This text is only speaking of
Christ. He is the salvation of God, and
He is the righteousness of God. Now, from the beginning, God
promised us a Savior, didn't He? He said, the seed of the
woman shall crush the head of the serpent, and He even told
us how He would do it, by the bruising of His heel. He promised
us a Savior. And from that point forward,
God began to show us in pictures and similitudes Christ. What was the next big one that
came up? That was the Passover lamb, wasn't it? God promised
justice and judgment upon Egypt. And He said, take that lamb,
set him aside for 14 days. Look him over. Make sure he's
spotless. And you kill him. in the presence
of all the congregation. You take His blood and you apply
it to the doorposts, and everyone in the house that hath the blood,
when I pass by, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's why it's called Passover.
He actually passed over those in judgment because why? Judgment
had already been done. The Lamb had already been slain
in their place. What a picture of Christ. That's
a picture of Christ. He was set aside for 14 days. All his life he was set aside,
and they... You ever heard of that going over with a fine-tooth
comb? That's where that comes from. The Jews would do that
with the lamb to make sure it didn't have a black hair. You
see, Jesus, they went over him with a fine-tooth comb, and what
did they find? He's spotless. Where did they kill him? In the
midst of the congregation. What did the blood do? It was
applied to the hearts of God's people and everyone that has
the blood. Listen, God passes over you. This is the salvation
He says is near to come. This is the righteousness that
shall be revealed. It's Christ. And listen, in this
place it hadn't yet come. He says near to come. It's to
be revealed. But we know this, in our day
it has already come. It has already been revealed.
Why? Because Christ, the seed of the woman, was born. God was
manifest in the flesh. The Scripture says the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And His purpose... Oh, He had
a purpose, didn't He? He had a purpose. You talk about
the only man that really had a life full of purpose is Christ. He had a purpose. Destroy the
works of the devil. Destroy sin. Destroy death. Destroy hell. Destroy all the
enemies of God. And this spotless Son of God,
He came to restore what He didn't take away. And like we said in
the Psalms, He said, I restored that which I took not away. That's
what He came to do. What did He come to restore?
Righteousness. Righteousness. Righteousness. In Romans 5 and
verse 19 it says, whereby one man's disobedience, many were
made sinners. You and I are made sinners by
one man, Adam. We had a representative man and
by him we were made sinners. But also by a representative
man we were made righteous. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. And that's what he came to do.
He came to restore righteousness, but not just righteousness, did
he? He restored righteousness by his own obedience, but not
just righteousness, because sin must be punished. We didn't come
into this world as a blank slate. Without sin, we had sin. We did sin. Therefore, our sin
must be punished. How could God tell you to do
judgment unjustly and not do it Himself? He must punish sin. Therefore, by grace and power,
God imputed our sins to Christ. God charged our sins In Christ. He said in His own body. He bare
our sin in His own body. How'd that happen? How do you
transfer your sin to Christ? You can't. Only God could do
that. It was a work of God. God literally
took your sin and put it in Christ. Amazing. Astounding. Can't understand
it. Don't... Tell you the truth,
I'm not even going to scratch my head about it, because it
just doesn't work. I can't figure it out. He just did it. He did
it. And Christ suffered. The just
for the unjust. Christ died. The just for the
unjust. The wrath of God was poured out
on Christ. God did judgment, kept judgment. God did justice. Where? At Calvary. He took our sins
and He gave them exactly what they deserve. Remember that great
day of atonement when He confessed the sins on the head of that
scapegoat and took the scapegoat away. But there was another goat
that must have died. And He slain the other goat.
Both of those picture Christ. He bore away our sins by His
death. By His death. To wit, God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. That's what He's
doing. He was reconciling us. He was saving us. He said, My
salvation is near to come. And when He came, He accomplished
salvation. By His death, He reconciled the
world to Himself. Not impure. You know why God's not going
to punish you? Because He's not willing to. If you find any other reason why
God wouldn't punish you, I can't find any. I find all the reasons
why He should punish me. The only reason I know He won't
is because He said, I won't. Will not impute sin to you. I
will not impute their trespasses to them. And He gave us the word
of reconciliation. That's what I'm preaching to
you. This is the word of reconciliation. Listen. Be you reconciled to
God. Why? For God hath made Him to
be sin for us. This is your ground. This is
your standing. This is how you can come to Him.
Because Christ was made sin for us. So that you might be made
the righteousness of God In Him. In Him. And not only His righteousness
was imputed and charged to us, but it was imparted. People don't
like to talk about this either. You who believe, you have the
righteousness of God in you. I don't see it. I don't care.
It doesn't matter if you see it or not. Because it's a nature
that's created of God. And what it says in Ephesians,
it tells us that we are created after God in true holiness. He that believeth on the Son
sinneth not. He's born of God. You're born
of God. You don't sin. You know why?
Because your nature cannot sin. The new nature cannot sin. You've been made righteous. by the new nature. I was in 1 John 5a, it says,
we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Listen, I
know you sin every day. Well, that's because you also
have another nature that can never be right. Child of God, behold these great
and precious promises. The revelation of God is that
we have now a new heart, a new man created by the Spirit of
God in the new birth. You have been quickened from
the dead. And by the grace, you were saved.
And what is the evidence of that? How do you know that? That's
important, isn't it? If God says, my salvation is
Christ, my righteousness is in Christ. Now, how do you know
you have that salvation? How do you know you have this
new picture? Because you're not going to look in the mirror and
see it. You're not going to look behind you and say, oh, look
at all those holy works I did. You won't do it. Matter of fact,
all you'll look behind and see is all you'll see is sin. How do you know? It's simple. Faith. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Evidence of things not seen. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Are you resting all your soul upon Jesus Christ and none
upon yourself? Is He all your righteousness?
Is His offering sufficient? to satisfy God. The Apostle John tells us that
there are many antichrists. He says this in 1 John 4 and
verse 1, he said, Beloved, don't believe every spirit. Don't believe
every preacher. Listen, I don't want anyone to
believe me because they love me. Don't you ever believe me
because you love me. You better make sure I'm telling
you what I'm telling you is right. Don't believe every spirit. Try
the spirits. See whether they be of God. Why? There's many false prophets going
out in the world whereby we know the Spirit of God. Hereby we
know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now, what does
that mean? Because every false prophet in
this generation will say, yeah, we believe Jesus has come in
the flesh. Well, it means a lot more than just that. It means
a lot more than just that. What that means is this, we believe
that Jesus is God. You believe that He has come
in the flesh. In other words, He had to exist
before He came, right? He had to be in order to come. What do we know about Him? We
know this, He was from eternity God, very God. So to believe Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh, we must believe He is God. Do you believe that? This is what Paul said, without
controversy. I like that. We don't have to
debate this. Somebody want to debate that? Don't. This is without
controversy. It's great mystery. Great mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Matter of fact, Jesus Christ
said this, If you believe not that I You shall die in your sin. You
know what he meant? I am. You understand what that
means. That's what he said at the bush when he talked to Moses.
He said, I am. Tell them, I am hath sent thee.
He that believeth not that I am shall die in his sin. That's
what John talked about. If he believes that Jesus Christ
is coming to flesh, you believe he's God. Manifest in the flesh. Secondly, It is to believe that
He is the Christ, and that what John says, he that believeth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. For Jesus to be the Christ, you
know what He has to have? Every picture, every prophecy
in all the Word of God, He has to fulfill. He can't miss one. You miss one, He's not the Christ.
He is the anti-type of all the types. All the pictures, all
the shadows were fulfilled in Him. All of them. He was the
Passover lamb. He was the scapegoat. He was
the blood atonement. He was the meat offering. He
was the wave offering. He's everything. He was the tabernacle. He's the high priest. He's the
prophet. He's the king. All that pictured
Him. We believe He's the Christ. Christ must be the salvation
and righteousness of God. Therefore, Jesus is fully revealed
to be the righteousness of God. His one offering, His one sacrifice
for sin has forever bought the salvation of all his elect to
believe he is Christ. I want you to understand this.
Many will say, well, I believe he's a Christ. I believe he's
a Christ. Was he successful? Is there anyone in hell for whom
Christ died? Now, if somebody's in hell for
whom Christ died, your Christ is not Christ. That's simple,
isn't it? How do you know that? It doesn't
take a great deal of theology to understand this. The Scriptures
are plain. It says, He shall not fail nor
be discouraged. You see, if Christ died for a
man and he goes to hell, who failed? Christ did. Christ didn't fail. There's another
one that says, thou shalt call his name Jesus. You know what Jesus means? Jehovah
saves. You gonna call him Jehovah saves. Why you gonna call him
that? For he shall save his people from their sin. See, to be the
Christ, he's gotta be successful. Is he successful? Do you believe
in a successful Savior? Is there any other kind? If a Savior doesn't save, He's
not a Savior. That's what Christ did. He saves
His people. And therefore, we believe this,
because He was successful, God raised Him from the dead, and
He is right now seated on the throne of heaven. To believe
on Christ. To believe our text. You see
this in your text. It says, my salvation is near,
my righteousness is to be revealed. Christ is that salvation. Christ
is that righteousness. And I know this because God raised
him from the dead. God set him on the throne. And
what is he doing right now? He's not twiddling his thumbs,
wondering what in the world you're going to do. I wonder what you're
going to do. I don't know what you're going
to do. You don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what
He's going to do. He knows what He's going to do.
You know what He's going to do? He's going to save His people.
He said, Thou has given Him power of all flesh that He should give
eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him. So God is moving
all things in time and eternity to save His people. to reveal
this salvation and righteousness to them. To us who believe, it is a great
honor to know this, that salvation is of the Lord. It is the highest
praise to know this. God chose us in grace. Christ accomplished our salvation. Spirit came and applied that
salvation, and the Spirit of God keeps that salvation until
the day of Jesus Christ. Is this your confession? And
look at verse 2. Blessed is the man that doeth
this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, and keepeth
the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hands from doing
any evil. Now, surely, Jesus is the blessed
man. Now, we can most surely apply
this to our Lord and Savior as the Savior. He is the blessed
man. He is the Son of Man that laid hold on salvation, didn't
He? He laid hold on it. Matter of
fact, the Scripture says He obtained eternal redemption. He got it.
He attained it. He did it. What a blessed man. And you know what He did? He
kept the Sabbath from polluting it. He was righteous in all His
deeds and obedience to God, and He kept His hand from doing any
evil. Now then, we know this could
be applied to Him, our Savior, but this verse can also be applied
to His people, to a believer, to you and me, who have seen
this salvation. Why? Because we've laid hold
on it. Have you laid hold on it? That's what it is about faith.
We lay hold on Him. And we keep the Sabbath from
polluting it and not doing any evil. How do we do that? Because
Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. In Jeremiah 17, verse 21, it
says, Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves that you bear
no burden on the Sabbath day. in by the gates of Jerusalem,
nor carry it forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath
day, neither do any work, but hollow the Sabbath. We who honor Christ, what do
we do? We cease from our works. We carry nothing in and we bring
nothing out. No burden for ourselves. Isn't it the Sabbath day? He
said God made the Sabbath day for you, for man. You know, it's
supposed to be a relaxing day. It's supposed to be a day of
freedom. And men made it a law. They made it a burden. That's
not salvation. Salvation is freedom. We cease
from our works, carrying our burdens in and out. We neither
will go forth to the grave or to heaven carrying our burdens.
Why? Christ bore our burdens. He bore our burdens. And so then, you who believe,
listen, you're the blessed man. God has blessed you. Now then,
let's go quickly. I'm going to see this complaint
now. Talking to you who are blessed. You who know the salvation of
the Lord. Here's the complaint. God anticipates
it. He says, "...neither let the
son of the stranger that had joined himself to the Lord speak,
saying..." This is our complaint. "...the Lord hath utterly separated
me from his people, and the second one comes from a eunuch, and
he says, Behold, I am a dry tree. Now, we who are in Christ have
a new nature that cannot sin, yet that does not mean we're
without sin. Nor does it mean that God is
somehow ignorant of our sin. Matter of fact, if you've been
a believer for any time at all, you know this, the Lord chasteneth
them that He loves, and scourgeth every son. Why? Because of sin. Because of sin. We are chastened
because of our sin. David sinned. David, a man after
God's own heart, committed adultery and murder, and when he had confessed
his sin, he said, David, thou art the man. And he said, I have
sinned against the Lord. And what did Nathan immediately
say? Did he give him something to do? He said, David, now you
need to do some penance. You need to go over here and
you need to do good to this person and you need to go over to Bathsheba's
family and you need to make it right with them. No, that's not
what he said. He said this, the Lord has put
away thy seed. Thou shalt not die. Listen, how
be it? Because this deed that has done
given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the
child that's born of thee shall die. He was chasing. He was chastened. Now you pay attention, because
you are blessed of God, because you now are accepted in the eyes
of God, have the righteousness of God imputed and imparted to
you, I want you to take this to heart. Believer, listen to
me. Our sins have consequences. Our sins have consequences, grief
and sorrow and affliction. J.C. Philpott said this, Most
of the wounds of the believer are self-inflicted. Self is the worst enemy we have.
Satan is not omnipresent. But wherever you go, there you
are. And in such times of sin and
chastisement, we are made to know more. We're more aware of
our own depravity. We see that we were by nature
strangers, aliens from the covenant of God. We see our own unworthiness to
be the sons of God. We are made to feel God's presence
depart from us. We feel Ichabod has been stamped
on our souls. How many times have we sinned
and fallen, and then we feel as though God has abandoned us,
that God has left us because of our sin, and we say, rightly
so. Rightly so. You know, in the law it said
this, that the stranger was not allowed to worship. Under the
law, the stranger was not allowed to worship. God said, the bastard
shall not enter the congregation. How often do we feel like bastards
and not sons? We feel like strangers. Strangers. This is why God anticipates this.
He says, neither let the son of the stranger that has joined
himself to the Lord. You see, we by nature were strangers,
but yet by grace we have joined ourselves with Christ. And so
God anticipates what we will say in the midst of our chastisement,
in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our affliction.
This is what we'll say. The Lord has utterly separated
us from each other. That's a complaint, isn't it? Ephesians 2, it says, we were,
without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. But, oh, I love the conjunctions.
But, now, in Christ, you were sometimes afar off. What? You're
made not. What does that mean? I don't care how you feel. This is what's real. You were
strangers, yes. But now, you are made nigh, not
by your good works, but by the blood of Christ. I like this. Salvation is something done completely
outside of me. And then it's something wrought
inside of me. And I had nothing to do with
either one of them. God said, don't let the stranger
say that. Don't let the stranger say that. Why? Because you've
been made nigh by the blood of Christ. That middle wall partition
has been broken down. God reconciled you by the blood
of His cross. He made peace. And this is the
message we preach to you. A message of peace. Believer, do you feel so far
from God? Now listen, if you don't, just
wait a minute. You will. And when you do, this
is for you. God said, don't you say that.
How dare you say that? Did I not bring you near? I brought you near. Do you feel
like you're still a stranger? Hear the Word of God, let not
the stranger say. Not you that have joined themselves
to Christ, don't you dare say this. But you're utterly separated
from His people. Look at verse 6. Also the sons of the stranger...
I'm sorry. Also the sons of the stranger
that joined themselves to the Lord, listen, to serve Him. This is what it is to join yourself
to the Lord, to serve Him. to love the name of the Lord,
to be His servants, everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from
polluting it, and taking hold of my covenant. Is that you?
Are you here to serve Him or serve yourself? Do you love Him? Do you desire to keep His Sabbath?
What is that? That's Christ. All my hope is in Christ. I don't
pollute that by adding anything to Christ. Even to them will
I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in the house
of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar, for my house
shall be called a house of prayer for all people. And the Lord
which gathereth out the outcasts of Israel say, yet will I gather
others to him besides those that are gathered, unto him. I wrote this hymn down. I thought
it was good. A mind at perfect peace with God. Oh, what word
is this? A sinner reconciled through blood. This, this indeed is peace. By nature and by practice far. How very far from God. Yet now
by grace brought nigh to him through faith in Jesus' blood,
so nigh, listen how close, so nigh, so very nigh to God, I
cannot nearer be. For in the person of his Son
I am as near as he. You think you're a stranger?
God says no, you can't be any closer to God. You may not feel close to God,
but what does that have to do with it? I like to feel close to God,
don't you? I want to feel close to God. I want to feel His presence.
I don't want to feel like a stranger. But when I do, His Word comes
in power and says it doesn't matter what you feel. Don't say
that. Why? I've brought you to my holy mountain.
What mountain? That's Christ, isn't it? I brought
you to the mountain that doesn't move. I brought you into Jerusalem,
into the city of refuge that cannot be assaulted. You can't
be any nearer than you already are. And the second complaint
comes from a eunuch. A eunuch, you know, is a man
that cannot reproduce. He cannot have sons. He cannot
produce life. That was us, wasn't it? By nature,
eunuchs. By nature, we could not produce
life in ourselves. We could not give life to others.
And how often we, even though we have been brought to the Lord
and saved by His salvation, we feel empty of righteousness,
empty of life. What does He say about that?
You said this, I'm a dry tree. You know what? I know this, that
God's people produce fruit. Isn't that what our Lord says?
I'm the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me shall produce
much fruit. And then you start looking for
it. What do you find? How much fruit do you have? You
a fruit counter? You counting how much spiritual
fruit you have? How much do you find? How much dry fruit? You know what God says? Don't
say that. Don't you say that. You are not
a dry tree. Look at verse 4. For thus saith
the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbath, and choose the
things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. Even unto
them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and
a name better than sons and of daughters. I will give them an
everlasting name that shall not be cut off. You know, I think
of Mephibosheth when I think of this. Mephibosheth was a man
lame on his feet. He had no sons. His line was
dead. Yet where did he sit? He sat
among princes. He sat among the king's sons. God says this, I know you're
dry in yourself, but I know this also. That that fruit that comes
out of you, I produce it. I produce it. You keep His Sabbaths and choose
those things that please Him? What pleases God? Faith in Christ
and love. You do those things that please
God? Who does that, you or Him? He does. Don't you dare say you're
a dry tree. Why? God said, I made you fruitful. I made you fruitful. I tell you
what, we are full of complaints, aren't we? Full of complaints. You know why? Because we don't
take time to look at God's salvation. You have to see salvation first
in order to answer the complaints. He said, My salvation is nigh
to come. My righteousness is near. What
is that? Christ. And we know this. He's already
come. He's already fulfilled salvation. I like that in Lamentations.
It says, Wherefore doth the living man complain? If God gave us life, eternal
life, and forgiveness of sins, if we are so near to God, we
cannot be near. What then is there to complain
about? I pray God will help us with
this. Gracious Father, use this as you please. Forgive us our
sins. May Christ be magnified. In his
name I ask, Amen.