every prophet of God in the scriptures, and every man who is sent of God to represent him and speak for him to eternity bound sinners in this day. Every God ordained, God called, and God sent preacher has a specific message and commission from God. Everyone. Everyone. and he knows what it is. God's servants have a message that they must proclaim, and they know what it is, they don't have any questions concerning it. Every God-sent preacher has a message to deliver to his generation, and he knows the message that God's given him. And he will faithfully deliver that message, regardless of cost or consequence. God's servants will speak his word. They will not hide it. They cannot be induced or persuaded to hide it by any reason.

Now let me give you some examples. You remember when God called Moses back in Exodus chapter three? Let's look at just three or four examples in the scriptures here. I want you to see what I'm saying. Back in Exodus chapter three, Israel had been in bondage nearly 400 years. Time had come for God to bring them out. And whenever God has decreed deliverance for his elect, God sends a man to proclaim deliverance to his elect, always. God raised up Moses to be a deliverer.

And Moses said, but I can't talk. Moses said, how are they gonna pay attention to me? He heard God speak out of the burning bush and he was overwhelmed with what he'd seen. But he said, God, I can't go. God said, all right, I sent Aaron with you. And Moses said, well, what am I gonna tell them? How am I gonna get folks paying attention to me?

In verse 14, the Lord God said unto Moses, I am that I am. Amen. for the first time God's redemptive name was made known to man. God said to Moses, I save in the manner in which I will save. That's what I am that I am this. I save whom I will. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am that sent me to you.

Now maybe somebody pays some attention. Now maybe somebody listened, but whether they listened or not, Moses knew who he was to speak, who he spoke for and who he was to speak. I said that the way I intended to. He came not to preach and speak about a person, he came to speak for a person and the person whom he spoke for is the one of whom he spoke. He spoke of God, the redeemer, the savior, the sovereign mighty king. All right, turn over to Jeremiah chapter one. Jeremiah chapter one. God sends Jeremiah to preach to his people. And Jeremiah's timid.

He knew if he came and told what God told him to tell, he was gonna be made to suffer for it, to say the least. He knew the nation of Israel was wholly given over to idolatry, it was his nation. He knew his family was like all the rest of the families in the nation, wholly given to idolatry. And so God spoke to him and God gave him this word.

Verse four, then the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak for I'm a child. A lot of times young fellows get gung-ho to preach, and mamas and daddies and preachers and Bible colleges say, oh, go for it.

But when a man finds out, when a man finds out who he represents, Oh my soul, here I stand, a spokesman to eternity bound immortal souls, whose responsibility it is to speak for God Almighty. You find that out, you want to sit down and shut up. Sit down and shut up. How can I do this? Paul said, who's sufficient in this day? Who on this earth is sufficient to handle the living word of God to speak for God to me. Who can handle that?

Jeremiah said, I said, Lord, I can't speak. I'm just a child. I'm nobody, nothing. But the Lord God said unto me, say not I'm a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I commend thee, thou shalt speak. Later on, Jeremiah said, well, I've had enough of this, I quit. You remember Dan Park's preaching conference last year? When God's prophet quits? Jeremiah said, I'll just quit. I've had enough of this. I don't need any more of this trouble. I can get enough of this without asking for it. He said, hey, I'll just quit.

But the word of God burned this fire in my bones and I could not contain myself. Because God said, you will speak for me. You will speak for me. Read on. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee. to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I put my words in thy mouth. You find a man with that kind of confident assurance that God Almighty has put him before me with his word.

And you better watch out, he's gonna root up and tear it out. This is what he said. See, I sent thee this day. I have this day sent thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down. That's what you must do with all human religion. And then to build and to plant. I put my word in you. Put my word in you.

Look at John the Baptist over in John chapter one. John the first chapter. In verse 23, the Pharisees came out, they sent messengers out, asked John, said, who are you? And he said in verse 23, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, just a voice, just a voice, nothing else. I'm just a mouthpiece for God Almighty. I'm here to speak what God says, no more, no less. The voice of one crying in the wilderness makes straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.

And they which were sin of the Pharisees, and they were sin of the Pharisees, and they asked him and said unto him, why baptizes thou then? If thou be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet. John answered and said unto them, I baptize with water.

But there standeth one among you whom you know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, who shoelatcheth. I am not worthy to unloose. God's servant always exalts God's Son, always. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptized. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.

Just take it away, the sin of the world, there he is. That's the one I've been talking about. That's the one I've been preparing for. That's the one I've been telling you to look for. He says, this is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. This man is God Almighty, the eternal one.

And I knew him not, but that he should be made known, made manifest to Israel. Therefore, I come baptizing with water. And John by record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode on him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record, this is the Son of God. This is it. This is it. And before it was over, John the Baptist lost his head. for preaching this man who is the son of God. Turn to Acts 26, Acts chapter 26. One more example. Murrow read one tremendous passage in Acts 17 for our scripture reading a little bit ago. And you saw the apostle Paul standing forth in the midst of the Areopagite at Murrow's Hill.

And if you could grasp what Paul knew of that place, he was talking to the learned philosophers, the Epicureans, and the Stoics, and right there on that spot, right there on that spot, some of the philosophers a long time before Paul got there had been condemned to die because they turned the hearts of the people away from their gods. And Paul stood right there, to turn the hearts of the people away from their gods to that God whom they called the unknown God, that God who alone is God.

And he spoke with power, spoke with authority. He spoke without any trembling in his voice, declaring God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And men were made to see and know that Jesus Christ is indeed God our Savior. Now how on this earth Could a man stand in such circumstances, surrounded by a city, given over to idolatry, among learned, well-educated, philosophical minds, stand there and speak for God things that were totally contrary to both their philosophy and their religion and their nature? How on this earth could he get such boldness? Look what happened over here in Acts 26. Paul is recounting for us his conversion on the road to Damascus.

In verse 14, he said, the Lord appeared to him, and when we were all falling down to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me, saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It's hard for you to kick against the bricks. And I said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet.

And this is what the Lord said to him. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I now send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that's in me, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.

He says, that's what I've been doing all my life. It's like I got a word from God, a commission from God, a message from God. I'm in an error from God himself. And I've got to speak as I do. Now those examples, I hold before you and tell you that every man who is called of God to preach the gospel, Everyone has such a commission and such a message and he knows what it is. Now in God's good providence, 15 years ago this week, you called me here to be your pastor. I hope those 15 years have been as pleasant and delightful for you as they have been for me. Oh, they have been years of ever increasing blessings.

I thank God. He caused our paths to cross when he did. I thank God for that. For me, this time of year is a time of reflection, and I always look back. I try to look over things and see what's been done for God's glory in the past year, what's been done for God's glory in these years that we have had together in his providence. Now, I'm not gonna talk to you this evening about God's blessings upon the ministry of this congregation, but my, my, how God has blessed us. I never cease to marvel that God should be pleased to use such things as we are, to accomplish such things as he has used us to accomplish in this generation, and I thank him for it.

It's his doing, not ours. Tonight, I want to review and rehearse the message that we have together been proclaiming and declaring to this generation these 15 years. And I will do what I have often done. I take you to record in the presence of God and in the presence of this assembly that my message has not deviated or altered or changed so much as one has prayed in these 15 years. You've not heard one thing different. You've not heard one thing contrary to what you first heard me declare to you 15 years ago. And God helping me, it's not going to change tomorrow. It's not going to change tomorrow.

I know preachers and intellectual fellows, they like to come to new positions, study out issues, let's come to a position on this thing. That which I declare to you is not the result of my investigation and study. It just isn't. Now I study. I study. I give myself to study relentlessly. But what I preach to you is not the result of what I've studied and searched out and discovered.

What I preach to you is what God's revealed to me. What I preach to you is what I know the Lord God has sent me to declare. And so I stand here and speak to you with authority as a messenger from God, not to offer you an opinion among all the various competing opinions that you may be confronted with, but to declare to you God's word and say bow to the word. Bow to what God says in his word.

Now I could use any of the prophets and preachers that we've already mentioned for my model this evening, but instead I want you to go with me to Isaiah chapter six. Turn there if you will and just hold your Bibles open. Isaiah chapter six, let me tell you what happened. Isaiah's idol, and I don't use that word idol in the sense that we would think of a religious image, not at all.

Isaiah's idol in the sense that the man to whom Isaiah attached greatest importance, and after whom Isaiah, excuse me, after whom Isaiah continually followed and looked to him as a leader and director in all things, Uzziah. Now Uzziah was a king, a mighty king in Judah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, all except for one thing. All except for one thing, he did not destroy the idols in the land. And so God made him a leper, and God killed him. And Isaiah said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, I am with you now.

His train filled the temple, and I saw the seraphim, the cherubim, or the seraphim facing one another. They had their wings with which they would fly to do God's will, with which they would cover their feet and cover their faces and bow before him. And then he said, they cried, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. And when he heard them cry, the post of the temple shook at the voice of their cry. And Isaiah saw him sitting on the throne, He heard the cry of the seraphim concerning him, and he said, oh, woe is me, woe is me.

I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And what he was saying is, what am I gonna do? I'm undone. Here I stand, a man, a guilty, helpless sinner before the holy Lord God. What am I gonna do? And the seraphim came with a live coal from off the altar. Touched his lips. And he said, this has cleansed your lips. Your sin is taken away.

And Isaiah said, I heard the Lord cry, whom shall I send, whom go false? And Isaiah said, here am I. Oh God, here I am, send me. If you can use me, use me. And the Lord spoke to him in verse nine. And he said, go and tell this people Go and tell His people. Now that's the title of my message this evening. But when I read that command that comes from God, my mind immediately raises a question. What did He tell them? What did He tell them? The Lord said, you go tell them.

Hear ye indeed, but understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy. Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and not healed in. My soul, I thought that was the object. so that they would see and hear and understand and be converted and be healed.

But God speaks a word of judgment. He said that you go speak to them and make certain as you speak to them that they do not hear and do not understand and are not converted. God says that's what's going to be the result of the message. You'd be certain of that. But what did he say? What did he preach to them? Now that's what I want to try to show you this evening. Like all true prophets, like all God-called preachers, Isaiah was sent of God into the midst of a crooked and perverse generation to speak for God, to tell people what he had seen, heard, and learned by experience and grace. And God said, before he ever sent it, they're not gonna pay attention to you. You can forget about preaching to great thronging crowds. You can forget about folks flocking to hear you. You can forget about popularity. You can forget about applause. They're not going to hear what you say.

Now, all of God's prophets, like Isaiah, see, hear, and learn the same thing by the same experience of grace, and they all preach the same thing. I went over, Thursday evening, some of us did, or Friday evening, and we listened to Brother David Pledger and Brother Donny Bell preach the gospel of God's grace. And I sat there and listened to them. My heart was cheered and improved. My heart was broken and my heart was bound up as I listened to the gospel of God's free grace.

And those fellows preach exactly what I do. David Ashton tonight, they're preaching exactly what I'm preaching to you. Mother Maurice came here last Sunday, preached exactly what I'm preaching to you now. All God's servants do. There's not any conflict in the message of God's servants. But what do they preach?

Let me show you in this chapter what Isaiah saw and what he preached. First, the prophet Isaiah declares that the Lord God Almighty is an absolute sovereign. And the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Now listen to me. God Almighty dwells alone in His unrivaled supremacy. and he will have no rivals in your heart. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah said, if ever you see God in his saving redemptive glory, your Uzziah has got to wither and die.

Don't make an idol out of this preacher. Don't make an idol out of any other preacher. Don't make an idol out of any man. Set your heart upon the Lord God. You say, well, aren't we supposed to follow man? If you follow God, you got to follow God's man. If you follow God, you got to follow God's servant. There's no question about that.

But do not make God's servant in your affections and in your esteem to be in competition with that glory which belongs only to the Lord God. Don't do that. Don't dare place a man to be the Lord of your heart. Don't do it. Don't set a man to have the affection of your heart, but set your heart on Christ alone. You understand that? Your desires have got to wither or you'll never see the Lord in his glory.

The Lord our God not only dwells in his unrivaled supremacy, but he's the Lord of the universe. Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. I love that picture of our God. Now, you know that the one that Isaiah saw here is Jesus Christ, our Savior. for these reasons. Number one, no man's ever seen God. God's a spirit, you can't see a spirit. Christ is the mediator through whom God makes himself known. Number two, our Lord Jesus in John 12, 41 says that this passage is talking about him. He says, Isaiah saw my day. Isaiah saw me, this is who he's talking about here. Now when he says that, he says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

That throne implies sovereignty. The throne setting in heaven is the throne of the universe. It's the throne on which the king of the universe sits. It's a throne of grace. There he sits, high, lifted up, exalted, the right hand of the majesty on high. Not only is he sovereign, ruler over all things, disposer of all things, that one from whom all things come to whom all things go, he is also sitting on the throne. That implies serenity, peace, satisfaction, contentment. Just sitting. Just sitting. No disturbance, no uneasiness, no concern, no care, no trouble. He sits. in the serenity of total dominion.

Do you understand this? He who is God our Savior sits on his throne and he sets peace of man for he absolutely rules the universe according to his will to accomplish his purpose for the glory of his name and the saving of his people. God's attributes as they are revealed in the redemptive work of grace, the redemptive work of Christ, the redemptive work of his spirit. God's attributes showing forth his purposes and his works are his glory.

Isaiah says his train filled the temple. Now, when we think about a band, we don't generally think about a train. I'm not talking about a choo-choo kind of train, I'm talking about a skirt kind of train. We went out and Shelby and Faith did and bought Faith's wedding dress, getting ready for the wedding. You ladies have all been through it, you've got that long train. I don't know why on this earth we're on a long train, we've got a long train, all wedding dresses have to have them. Well, kings would wear robes, royal apparel. And as they walked, those long trains, Flowing skirts would follow behind them.

And when Moses asked God to see his glory, do you remember what the Lord did? Remember what he did? He said, now come over here, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, you can't see my face. But I'll cause my skirt to pass over you. I'll cause you to see my back parts. I'll cause you to see my glory.

And that's what Isaiah's describing here. He says, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up. And he's talking about on the mercy seat in the very holy of holies. And there, God's glory filled the temple. God's glory filled everything. so that God's glory, his attributes displayed in redemption are the very essence of all things in the temple in the Holy of Holies. This is where God's glory is revealed in redeeming work by Christ the Lord. His train then fills the temple. Now the second thing Isaiah describes is God's great holiness. He says to the Lord God, is sovereign and the Lord God is holy. Look at verse two.

Above it stood the seraphims. Now, if you care to investigate, you can see how that Moses was commanded of God to make the Ark of the Covenant in the mercy seat and form the seraphim. These two seraphim, one looking toward the other, but each one with his face down looking toward the mercy seat where blood atonement was made. And that's what Isaiah describes here as the throne of grace. He sees everything focusing on redemption, and he sees the seraphim.

Now some folks say these are angelic messengers, maybe so, I don't know. But I'm certain that when John describes them in Revelation chapter four, these living creatures, these four beasts, these living creatures that John describes, he's referring back here to the seraphim.

And they were messengers who were themselves redeemed. So they're God's messengers and the angelic messengers, those who come on errands with mercy for God's elect, they certainly are his messengers. But God's servants, pastors and preachers, they're sent as angels of God to you, messengers from God for you. They have one thing on their minds, the mercy seat, the atonement, the sacrifice.

The seraphim then come, and they have one message to declare. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabbath, the Lord God of hosts. There is certainly an allusion here to the Trinity. God the Father is holy. God the Son is holy. God the Holy Spirit is holy in all his being and in all his works. Holiness identifies our God.

And God's sovereignty is again brought to the forefront for he's called the Lord of hosts. The Lord of all earthly hosts, that means he rules everybody here. And the Lord of all heavenly hosts, he rules everybody there. And the Lord of all hellish hosts, He rules everybody there as well. He's Lord everywhere.

Do you understand that? This is our God, holy and Lord over all. His glory is the fullness of the whole earth. If you have a marginal reference, that's exactly what the last sentence of verse three means. The whole earth is full of His glory. That is, His glory is the fullness of the whole earth.

How do you understand the events past, present, and future of this earth. You read your history books and you read your newspapers. How on this earth can you make heads or tails out of it? How on this earth can you grasp what's going on in this world, on this ball of clay which we call earth? There's only one way under the shining sun, you can understand it.

If you understand that God made this world, God created this world to display his glory in the saving of his elect. That's what the world made for. That's the reason God created Adam and Eve. That's the reason God, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth. Because God had purposed from eternity to display his glory in redeeming sinners from a fallen race, right here on this pile of clay. And God's glory is the fullness of the earth. He explains it with that. There's coming a time. Ron had it in the lesson this morning. There's coming a time when all creatures will bow before his throne and give glory to God and to the Lamb. Exist for your everlasting glory.

Every event, every trial, every difficulty, every blessing, every sorrow exists and comes to pass because God is accomplishing his purpose, which is his glory and the redemption of our souls in our everlasting salvation. Then in the light of God's glorious sovereignty and holiness, in verse five, Isaiah saw his own personal depravity. guilt and condemnation.

Then said I, woe is me. Woe is me. This passage doesn't much lend itself to the charismatic views of worship, waving your handkerchief and Jumping Jews and hollering and clapping and carrying on, does it? Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. I saw God in his glorious, sovereign likeness. And I wasn't shouting happy, because I saw myself a sinner. And I cried, oh, woe is me. Woe is me. Why?

I'm a man of unclean lips. Now notice Isaiah. when he speaks of his sin, his depravity, his corruption, and his guilt, does not speak of something outside himself, but rather of something coming from within himself, his heart. It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh, and those things that come out of the mouth are but a reflection of the depravity of the heart. And Isaiah says, I'm a man with a depraved heart and nature, and there's nobody out here who can help me. Nobody can help me. Everybody around me has also got unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And this is the reason I stand in awe, trembling, condemned, guilty, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

The only way any man will ever honestly acknowledge his depravity The only way you will ever truthfully acknowledge your helplessness with guilt before God Almighty. The only way any sinner will ever come to grips with his just condemnation before the Holy Lord God is if you see Christ in his redemptive glory. That's the only way it'll happen. They shall look on me, he says in Zechariah 13, whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for.

We almost always get things backwards. We want to get repentance and then come to Christ. That's not how it works. You come to Christ for repentance. You come to Christ as you are, and Christ brings to pass in you everything you need. You come to Christ guilty, depraved, helpless, and Christ gives you an acknowledging and confessing heart of your depravity, your guilt, and your helplessness.

Now this is what Isaiah saw, and this is what he declared. God is sovereign, God is holy, and I'm guilty, I'm condemned. Then fourthly, he talked about effects of atonement through a blood sacrifice. Read verse six. Then, when I confessed my sin, then, you see that? When I said, woe is me for I'm undone, then, threw one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken away, thy sin is purged.

The seraphim, the gospel preacher, came from the throne of God with a message from God. Somehow, when God intends to speak mercy, when God intends to deal with a sinner in grace, somehow, if he has to turn the world upside down to do it, he'll do it. He'll cause the sinner whom he's chosen to cross paths with the preacher whom he sent. And the preacher comes with God's message. That's what I'm doing tonight. That's what I've spent my life doing. I'm looking for some sinners. whom God would be pleased to make his word effectual and speak by me through his spirit these very words. This thine iniquity is taken away.

This preacher came in the power of God's spirit with a live coal from off the altar, a burning ember from the altar. You remember the altar in the temple was the place where the sacrifice was made, where blood was poured out and the sacrifice was burned up as Jesus a sweet-smelling savor to God. And the live coal from off the altar is an emblem of Christ's glorious burning efficacy before God Himself to purge away our sins. His blood is able, His blood is effectual, His blood is sufficient to purge away the sins of His people. And the seraphim, with that ember in His hand, that live coal in His hand, proclaimed redemption accomplished for guilty sinners.

He proclaimed complete forgiveness to this man, Isaiah. He proclaimed forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb. He says, lo, this now I've touched your lips. Thine iniquity is taken away. Thy sin is purged. That's what I've come to declare. Not redemption possible, redemption done. Not redemption if you will, redemption accomplished by God's will. And now, as God comes and speaks to you by his spirit, giving you faith in Christ, this is the word of God to you.

Your iniquities taken away. Your sins are purged. Do you believe it, Bob? Do you believe it? This is God's word to you. Your iniquities Take a look. Do you believe it? Your sins are purged. That's the message. And then, having experienced grace and redemption, God's prophet was sent to warn, to warn impenitent sinners of the certainty of divine judgment. That's what verses eight through 12 are all about.

In verse 9, the Lord says, go tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not. See ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy. Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Understand with their heart. and convert and be healed.

All about a message. This book's a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. It is both a message of life and a message of death. To you who believe, it is a message of the sweet savor of Christ from life into life. But to you who believe not, it's a message of death unto death. God said, now Isaiah, I sent you with a message, but I'm telling you, you go speak for me. It's going to be a message upon your nation, your whole nation, your whole nation.

And that was just almost too much for me. Then said I, Lord, How long? How long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

Men are guilty. The utter depravity and decadence of our race is evident to anyone who can see. This world as a whole is constantly moving away from God and the religious world's no different. I guarantee you, I guarantee you, if your fathers, when you were just boys, you men and women, if your fathers Whether they knew God or not, if they had just picked up Friday's paper or this morning's paper and read about what goes on in churches in the name of God, why, they'd have thought, who on this earth has gone so crazy insane? Who would ever imagine doing these kinds of things and calling it serving God? Who would ever imagine this nonsense going on in the houses of worship, this entertainment, this playing of games, this conforming to the world? Who would ever have imagined such a thing? But the whole world, secular and religious, is going astray from God, just walking away from God under judgment.

And there's a day coming when you and I are gonna meet God face to face. You're gonna meet God in judgment. I'm gonna meet you at the bar of judgment. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But thank God he didn't leave Isaiah there, and he didn't leave me there. He said, I want you to tell one more thing. Be sure you get this and be sure you tell it. God's prophet declares there is a remnant, according to the election of grace, who must and shall be saved.

But yet in it, In this generation, forsaken God, in this generation under the judgment of God, in this generation under the wrath of God, in this generation of wicked, perverse men, reprobate minds, reprobate hearts, condemned by God, there in this generation shall be a pen and it shall return and shall be eaten as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance is in them. When they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Oh yes, God's servants, all of them. God's prophets, all of them talk about election. All of them do. Some of you folks here be talking to folks and they'll say, well, my preacher don't ever preach on God's election. That's because your preacher don't know God. God's servants talk about it. They talk about it.

I don't have any hesitancy in saying that. You see, if there were no election, there could be no salvation. If salvation is to come out of these fallen ruins of humanity, if salvation is to come out of this fallen, corrupt, vast, wasteland called humanity, there must be an election made. Somebody's got to decide to say it. And God did before the world began. God says a tenth shall return.

At any given time in this world, past, present, and future, God's elect always appear to be just a remnant, at any given time. A multitude which no man can number, I know that. A great multitude, 10,000 times 10,000, thousands of thousands, I know that, I know that. But in this world, at any given time, they just look like a tenth, just an insignificant number.

But there is an elect remnant. God's elect remnant shall be saved. He says it shall return. No questions about it. No ifs, ands, maybes, or perhaps. Those who are chosen of God, having been redeemed by Christ, shall return to him. And returning to him through the merits of Christ the mediator, they shall be accepted as God's portion.

That's what it means when it says it shall be eaten. That word eaten. is a strange translation in the context. It simply means it shall be received and accepted as God's portion, as a teal tree, strong, fruitful, as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves.

So the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. These elect ones are the salt of the earth. The substance. The substance of the whole human race. What does that mean? What on earth does that mean? These are the substance. The substance of the race is Indian. Indian. I'm not going to get into it a whole lot. I'm going to tell you exactly what it means.

It means as far as God is concerned, nobody else much matters. That's what it means. God's interest is in his elect. God does everything for his elect. He says to save you, I've sacrificed Ethiopian citizens. I've sacrificed men for you. I've given people for you and nations for your life. What does that tell you?

The substance of the race, the substance of creation, the substance of God's purpose of grace in this world is his elect. That's why God does everything. And we are sent of God in this generation with a message for chosen sinners. The message is redemption accomplished through Jesus Christ, God's divinely appointed substitute by God who is totally sovereign. and he does it in such a way as is totally consistent with his perfect holiness. That's the meaning of 2 Peter 3,

9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward. Longsuffering to his elect, not to the world. but to his elect, whom he has chosen and purposed to save, his portion who must return to him. He is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that every one of them come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. Now, this whole chapter gives us assurance of the certain, sure accomplishment of God's purpose.

It shall return. It shall return. And I urge you and I urge myself, as we endeavor in this generation to serve our God, to faithfully proclaim the word of his grace. God, give us grace. God, give us grace to overcome every temptation to compromise, every temptation to seek a way chop off the rough edges and somehow make the message of grace palatable to depraved men.

It can't be done. It cannot be done. Anytime you try to make the message acceptable to folks who are at enmity against God, whose hearts are enmity against Him, when you try to, if you get the message, whether they will accept it, you don't have the message anymore. You've just, you've thrown it away.

So what do you do? We stand here and declare to you that God is sovereign. that this sovereign God is absolutely holy, that you're utterly depraved and condemned without Him, that salvation has been accomplished through a divine substitute whose blood is effectual to purge away the sins of chosen sinners, effectual to purge away the iniquities of all who believe, that God Almighty is a God of certain judgment. is appointed to man wants to live and after wants to die and after this the judgment you'll meet God. How you gonna meet him? How do you hope to stand in the presence of the Holy Lord God who is a consuming fire? I stand before him in Christ alone. That's all.

And this holy Lord God, who will judge men for sin, men and women who fully deserve his wrath, has chosen in sovereign mercy to save us all. Oh, what goodness and grace is revealed in the election. And he's going to do it. Every one of them shall return. So we'll carry the word. Looking for his sheep. And his sheep will hear his voice and they'll follow him. They'll follow him. Lord, if any sheep here tonight. Brother Rex prays so often. Lord, if there's any of your little sheep, will you call them here? He surely will. He surely will.