Let's turn our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 62. I have a message that I believe
is from the Lord, and I'll tell you I'm kind of excited about
it. I can't tell you how much in the past days that these verses
have been such a blessing and encouragement to me, and I hope
that they will be to you. As I read and studied this, this
was a message straight for me. So I hope the Lord will make
it that way to your heart as well. The title of the message
is Don't Give the Lord Rest. Don't give the Lord rest. Now
you'll recall we looked at this last week in the first five verses
of the chapter. The Lord promised he's going
to speak to his people and he will not hold his peace. He's
promised that he himself will speak to the hearts of his people
through the preaching of the gospel. That's what I pray he
do tonight. He promised he would speak to
the heart. He would speak to the hearts
of his people through the preaching of his word. He promised that
he would come and make his people righteous and he would not rest
until the work was accomplished. He promised that he would not
forsake his people, but that he would be joined to them in
marriage. He promised he would not forsake his people because
he delights in them. Now aren't those precious promises?
I just love those promises. And this we know because they're
promises of God. Those promises are sure. They're
certain. There's no way that those promises
will not come to pass. Nothing can happen that will
make them not come to pass because God has the sovereign power over
everything to make sure they come to pass. And we know these
promises are sure and certain because the Lord's faithful.
He will do what He promised to do. And He won't ever change
His mind. Now that's so, isn't it? But
if hearing that truth, we hear that truth on Sundays and Wednesdays,
and if hearing that truth makes us go out into the world and
live our lives and become fatalistic, if it makes us say, oh well,
God's already decided what He's going to do in eternity, whatever
God's going to do, He's going to do, nothing I can do to change
it, So I'll just wait and see what the Lord's going to do.
These sure and certain promises of God make you think that, become
fatalistic. You haven't heard these promises
spoken to your heart from the Lord. God's people are praying
people. We must talk to our Heavenly
Father. And it is the promises of God,
the sure promises of God that encourage us to pray. We've got
a wrong understanding of the promises of God, the certainty
of them, if that leads us to not pray. It's the sure promises
of God that encourages God's people to pray. Let me see if
I can't show you this from a few words, statements that the Lord
gives us here in these verses. First, God gives a word to man,
to the world. God says he sent his preachers
into the world, verse six. I've set watchmen upon thy walls,
O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.
Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. Now, Jerusalem
here is a picture of the church. God sent his pastors out into
the world and he sends them to the local church. He sends them
to a specific place upon the wall of Jerusalem, a specific
place where they're to serve. Now, there are many so-called
preachers out there in the world. How can I tell which ones are
the ones God sent and which ones are charlatans? Number one, you
can recognize God's preachers because they will not hold their
peace. Day or night, they won't hold
their peace. And in that way, God's servants are just like
our master. Look at verse one. This is Christ speaking. He says,
for Zion's sake, will I not hold my peace? And for Jerusalem's
sake, I will not rest. And to the righteousness thereof,
go forth as brightness. and the salvation thereof is
a lamp that burneth. Our Savior says, I'll not hold
my peace. I'll not rest. And God's preachers
won't either. They won't hold their peace.
They won't rest. They will always take every opportunity. Every time they have the opportunity
to preach, they're going to preach the same message. It's the gospel
of salvation through the three sovereign grace of God Almighty.
And they will never compromise that gospel. They won't change
their message to suit the audience. They'll always preach the same
message, no matter the circumstances and no matter who's listening.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. This is exactly the instruction
that the Apostle Paul gave to young Timothy as he was in his
ministry and he would be pastoring and soon Paul would be gone.
This is Paul's charge to Timothy. to always preach the same message
and to never compromise it. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1. I charge
thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who's
the judge, the quick and the dead of his appearing and his
kingdom. Pretty serious charge, isn't
it? You're charged. Preach the word. Be instant in
season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they'll
not endure sound doctrine, But after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And Timothy, don't
you itch those ears. They'll turn away their ears
from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But you, Timothy,
you watch thou in all things. You endure afflictions. You do
the work of an evangelist. You make full proof. You fulfill
the responsibility of your ministry. That's Paul's charge to Timothy,
to stay faithful, to keep preaching the gospel of Christ, no matter
what. That's how you can tell God's
servant. Second, you can recognize which preachers are God's preachers
because they all have the same message. Their message is always
Christ. Brother Lindsey Campbell was
telling me somebody he knows there in the community was talking
to him about where Lindsey goes to church. He said, all you guys
do is grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. And Lindsey said, yep,
that's right. All God's servants have one message. It's Christ. Recently, I was
in Kingsport, Tennessee for a conference where Clay Curtis, Cody Groover
and I were preaching. And I was sitting there. Cody
preached first. I was to preach right after Cody. Neither one
of us had the slightest clue in the whole Bible. I mean, just
in the whole Bible, where's this text going to be? And as I was
sitting there listening to Brother Cody, I thought, that's in my
notes. Different text, but that's in
my notes. That's a minority thing. Well, it ought not be surprising,
is it? We all have one message. It's the message of Christ. It's
the message of who he is. He says here that the Lord, the
servants, ye that make mention of the Lord, that word is remembrances. God's preachers are remembrances
who constantly remind people of Christ. We remind people salvation's
in Christ. Righteousness is in Christ. We live a life of sin. We live
in a sinful body of flesh. We need to be reminded of this.
Forgiveness of sins in Christ is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. We need to be reminded that there's
peace with God in the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood of his sacrifice. You know those things, but it's
good that God's preacher remind us of those things. The Apostle
Peter says, I think it's right. It's me, as long as I live in
this tabernacle, to put you in remembrance of these things.
Even though you already know them and believe them, Peter
said, it's just right that God's servant constantly reminds us
of these things. If you keep hearing the same
message over and over and over again for a man, pretty good
indication that that message is Christ. Over and over and
over again, that's God's servant. That's how you can tell who God's
servants are. That's a word to this world. God sent his preachers
into the world. Here's how you can recognize
them. They're listening. They got a message from the Lord.
Second, God has a word he gives to his preachers. Look down at
verse 10. He says, go through, go through
the gates, prepare you the way of the people, cast up, cast
up the highway, gather out the stones, lift up a standard for
the people. Now what this is referring to
is the cities of refuge. And the priests at that time
would regularly check the roads that led to the different cities
of refuge. They would make sure there's nothing in the road that
would slow down the manslayer as he was fleeing to the city
of refuge. They wouldn't have trees or down or, you know, big
holes in the road or something. They'd make sure all that way
was smooth so the manslayer could flee quickly to the city of refuge.
They'd make sure the signposts and all the corners were still
pointing this way, this way, this way, that they're pointing
the right way so it wasn't possible for the manslayer to get lost.
He'd always know what way to go to get to the city of refuge.
That's the job of God's preachers. Every time we preach, we're to
make the way of salvation clear. It's all in Christ. That's our job. The job of the
preacher is to make sure that there's nothing between the sinner
and Christ. There are no requirements you
have to meet to come to Christ. Nothing between. The only thing
you have to have is a need, your need of Him. God's preachers
are to remove every obstacle. You don't have to come to a man
who calls himself a priest in order to get to God. You go directly
to Christ, our great high priest. You don't have to give up doing
something. You don't have to sacrifice something that you
like doing in order to come to God. You come directly to Christ,
who is our sacrifice. You don't have to come to what
men call an altar in front of the church in order to be saved.
If you want salvation, you go directly to Christ. We have an altar, don't we? It's
Christ. Now you come to Him. That's where
the sacrifice is. And I'll tell you what else.
You don't have to keep the law in order to be saved. You don't
have to start doing, you know, keeping a few laws and doing
better before you come to Christ. Brother, it's too late. We've
already broken God's law. That's why we need Christ in
the first place. No, the law has a price on our head because
we've broken it. Well, what should we do? Go directly to Christ. Go to Him for refuge. Hide in
Him. Hide from the avenger of blood
in Him. The avenger of blood is God's
justice. And just like the manslayer would
flee to the city of refuge, we have a price on our head. We're
fleeing. Go to Christ. Go directly to Him. And hide
in Him. Have Him as your refuge. who
has already satisfied God's justice for him. Now you get to him,
you hide in him. That's the preacher's job, to
point the way to Christ. The preacher's job is to clear
the way to Christ, to clear away all the clutter of man's religion
and just plainly and simply preach the word of God so that a sinner
will see Christ and run to him. That's the preacher's job. The
preacher's job is also to make sure all the signposts are up,
clear and visible. Actually, God's servant is supposed
to be the signpost saying, this way, this way. Here's the Christ. Go to him. Here he is. We're
to go through God's word constantly. Say here he is. Here he is. Here
he is constantly pointing out the Savior. That's the preacher's
job. That's what Isaiah means when
he says lift up the banner or the standard. The standard is
a banner or a sign. Lift it up. The preacher's job
is to lift Christ up so people can see and know which way to
go. That's exactly what Moses did in the wilderness, isn't
it? When the people were bitten by the fiery serpents, he made
that serpent of brass and he held it up as high as he could
so that anyone who was bitten, anybody who was suffering and
dying could look and live. That's the preacher's job, to
lift up Christ so sinners and look into it. That's the commandment
that God's given his preachers. And he gives us the message to
preach. Look here at 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. The message, this message of
Christ is preached to the whole world. Every corner of this world,
this message is preached. But the message is only to God's
elect. Now, it's preached in the whole
world, but this message is only to God's elect. That's the daughters
of Zion. Our message to the daughters
of Zion is that salvation is a person. Behold, thy salvation
cometh. His reward is with thee. That's
what tells us this salvation is a person. Thy salvation cometh. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming. He is our salvation. Salvation
is not only in what Christ did for His people. There's a work
He had to do. There are things that He must
accomplish for the salvation of His people. But salvation
is not only what Christ did for His people. Salvation is who
Christ is. Salvation is His person. Salvation
is His righteousness. Salvation is His holiness. Salvation
is His grace. It's His love. It's in His power. It's in His blood. Salvation's
in Christ. And when He's coming, when He
comes, Isaiah says His reward is with Him. Now what is this
reward He's bringing? What's the reward that He's coming
to bring to His people? The reward He brings to His people
is His righteousness. He's going to make them righteous
in Him. It's His holiness. That's the
reward He's bringing to make His people holy in Him. Justified
and sanctified. The reward is the forgiveness
of sins. He's bringing the blood of the
sacrifice to wash His people from all their sins. The reward
He's bringing is being made just like Christ. He's coming to get
His people, to make them just like Him. Well, when's he coming? Well, there's several times that
he came to his people, isn't there? He came to his people
when he was born in Cardiff. When he was born there in Bethlehem,
God's salvation appeared. That's what Simeon said. He held
that eight-day-old baby in his hand. What faith, what God showed
him, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Christ was born in
Bethlehem's manger. God's salvation appeared. Then
He appears to His people in the new birth. When He takes up residence
in your heart, Christ in you, the hope of the Lord. He's appeared
to His people in the new birth. And He's going to appear again.
He's going to appear the second time. When He comes back to gather
His people. They'll all be resurrected or
they'll be changed. All made just like Him. And they'll
meet Him in the air. To be forever with the Lord,
ever like the Lord. All thy salvation is coming.
He's coming. You watch for him. He's coming.
But here when Isaiah is writing, the Savior hasn't even come the
first time at it. So what he's talking about primarily, I believe
here, is when he comes the first time. When the Savior comes the
first time, he's going to have a work laid out before him. A
work that the Father gave him. A work of the redemption of his
people. And you can rest assured, he's going to do it. He's going
to do it. The work's done. Now you just
rest him again. Remember after Ruth, when she
went and she uncovered Boaz's feet and she lay at his feet
and they talked there in the night. He gave her the corn and
said, you go home to your mother-in-law. I've got some things I've got
to do. She went home. Ruth went home. She told Naomi
everything Boaz told her. And Naomi with some wisdom said,
now honey, you sit right here. You sit still. Don't you do a
thing. the man will not rest until he
finishes the plan. Sit still, he's going to finish
the plan. And that's exactly what our Savior
did. He came and he never rested,
did he? Never rested until the work of
salvation was finished. He obeyed the law. He actively
obeyed the law in every job, in every till. He never rested. That's a work you and I can't
imagine obeying the law. He never rested. He always obeyed
it perfectly. And when he established perfect
obedience to the law, the work wasn't done. He had to go to
the cross. He had to suffer and die to put
away the sin of his people, to satisfy God's death for them.
He went and did it. Then he rose again. He rose again
for the justification of his people. And he ascended back
on high. there to ever live making intercession
for His people. And when He ascended back on
high, you know what He did? He sat down. He sat down sovereignly
on the throne of glory working out the redemption of His people.
Sovereignly calling them out. Sovereignly seeking them. Sovereignly
directing everything to bring His people to Him. Because the
work of redemption is good. And He sat down. Christ is resting
from all His work of redemption. The work's done. Just like Naomi
told Ruth to sit still, lets us sit still. Resting. The work's done. That's the message
that God's given His servants to preach. Third, God has some
promises. He has a word of promise for
His people. Here's what God's elect have because of who Christ
is and what He's done for them. Verse 12. They shall call them
the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be
called sought out, a city not forsaken. There are four promises
for God's elect in this verse. The first promise is this. Because
of the work of Christ for his people, they are going to be
holy. They will be called the holy
people. They're going to be holy because Christ has made them
holy. Through his obedience to the law, he's made them holy.
Now don't be discouraged. We look at ourselves and say,
I'm not holy. Well, if you look at yourself and you can see I'm
not holy, that probably means you're one of these holy people.
Because only the new man can see the sin of the old man. When
we look at ourselves, all we see is sin in it. But that new
man who's born of God, he's holy. He's born of the Holy Spirit.
It's not that he can't be anything but holy. If he's born of the
Holy Spirit, does that make sense? He's holy. Now, if God calls
us holy, then we're holy. God can't lie. God can't call
us something we're not. If God calls us holy, we are.
And if God sees us as holy, no matter how we see ourselves,
if God sees us as holy, that's what we are. Because God sees
things as they are. They'll be called the holy people
because Christ is going to make them holy. Here's a second promise. Because of the work of Christ
for His people, they're going to be called the redeemed of
the Lord. God's elect are falling at Adam. And because of their
sin, they have a price on their head that's got to be paid. If salvation is going to be accomplished
in justice, that price has to be paid. The law demands death
for sin. So Christ came and redeemed His
people. He bought them back. He bought them back by paying
the ransom price with His own blood. Christ redeemed His people
from the curse of the law. He made a curse for them. The
law demanded that God's elect die. So Christ died in their
place. He died as their substitute.
And since Christ has died, since He paid the ransom with His blood,
the law demands we go forth. You're to be redeemed. You've
been bought back and set free because of the sacrifice of Christ.
Third promise is this. Because of who Christ is, you're
going to be called sought out. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
a perfect salvation. He didn't try to save anybody.
He came and He saved His people. He saved the people that the
Father gave Him in the eternal covenant of grace. He saved them
from their sin. Their salvation is accomplished.
And because Christ died for a specific people, the law demands those
people go free. The ransom price has been paid.
None of them can ever perish because Christ already died for
them. But you know where they are when they're born? They're
born lost in sin, like that sheep wandering away. So Christ, the
good shepherd, he's already accomplished their salvation. He's not going
to let them go. He goes and seeks them out. He
seeks until he finds them. When he finds them, he puts them
on his shoulder and brings them home. The only reason we're found
and not lost is God's office. The only reason you'd be called
sought out. And here's the fourth promise.
Because of Christ's death for his people, they'll be called
a city not forsaken. Now we looked at this last week
in verse four. He says, thou shalt no more be
termed forsaken. You're not going to be forsaken
anymore. You remember when Christ suffered
and died, as he was suffering there on the cross, he cried,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Good question. Why would the father forsake
his only begotten son, the son of his love? He forsook him because
Christ was made sin for his people. And the holy father can't even
look on sin, even when that sins on his own son. God is holy,
so when Christ was made sin, the Father forsook Him. And when
the Father forsook Him there at Calvary, the Savior suffered
hell in the place of His people. Because that's what hell is,
being forsaken of God. And since Christ, our substitute,
was forsaken, we can never be forsaken. Never. We'll always
be accepted in the Beloved, because of who Christ is. Those are four
precious promises, aren't they? their promises God gives to his
people. Then back in verse 8 we have another promise of God to
his people. God's elect are not going to have to provide for
themselves. Christ our Savior will provide
everything God requires and everything we need. Verse 8. The Lord has
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. But they that have gathered it
shall eat it and praise the Lord. And they that have brought it
together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. I'll tell
you what Isaiah is writing about here to the Jews. He's writing
about how the Babylonians treated Israel. You know, their Israel
was, you know, and they, in the spring, you know, they plant
the seed and they weed the gardens and, you know, raise the crops
and everything. And right when it came time to
harvest, the Babylonians would sweep in and they'd take everything.
What they didn't take, they destroy so that Israel is left with nothing.
They're just left destitute and empty and hungry. And that's
a picture of what sin does to us. Oh, we plant. Boy, we've
got our ideas what we're going to do. We plant, we water, we
try to, you know, do our thing, you know, try to produce something
good that God will accept. And when we do that, what happens?
Thorns and thistles of sin come and choke it out and kill it.
We're left with nothing. We're left empty. We're left
starving. We're left naked because we can't
produce any righteousness. Christ, our Savior, has a people
and He loves them. And because He loves them, He's
not leaving them in that miserable, miserable condition. They're
naked, so He clothes them in His righteousness. They're empty,
so He fills them with Himself. They're sinful, so He makes them
righteous in Him. And God's elect, they do reap. They reap what Christ has sowed
for us. That's a bountiful harvest. What
Christ has provided? Oh, that's reaping handfuls of
purpose, isn't it? In Christ, we harvest everything
we need. What is it you need? To go to Christ completely. And
in Christ, we have everything God requires. Now, that brings
me to the point that I wanted to make to begin with. Here's
the fourth thing. God issues a call to his people
to pray. Verse 7, and give him no rest
till he establish, until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. God says to his people to call
on him in prayer, and to keep calling on him, and keep calling
on him, and keep calling on him, and don't give him any rest.
Don't quit until he does what he's promised to do for his people.
God tells his people to do that. Now, that's what we call importunity. Importunity is a big word. It
means persistence. It means pestering. That's the
definition of the word. It's refusing to quit begging
God to do what he promised. Now, children ought not do that. Don't do that. If your mama tells
you no, Don't mention it again. But God tells His children, Pastor,
keep calling and don't shut up. Keep calling. Keep calling. Keep
calling. Don't quit. Look at Luke chapter
11. You remember when the disciples came
and they asked the Lord, teach us to pray. John taught his disciples
to pray. Teach us to pray. And that's
when the Lord gave his disciples the model prayer for the disciples
after this manor preggy. And when he got done with that
model prayer, I want you to look what he said. He didn't just
end with that model prayer. Verse five. And he said unto
them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him
at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves.
For a friend of mine and his journey has come to me and I
have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut, and my
children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will arise
and give him as many as he needed. See, what happened there is he
just kept asking and kept asking and kept asking, and because
he's his friend, he finally broke down, went and gave him what
he needed. Verse nine, I say unto you, ask. and it shall be
given. Seek and you shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. And in context there, what the
Lord is saying here is ask. If the Lord doesn't give it to
you, ask again. If he doesn't give it to you,
ask again. And keep asking and keep asking and keep asking until
he gives it. If you knock and he doesn't answer,
keep knocking, keep knocking, keep knocking until he answers.
That's importunity. And look over in Luke chapter
18, the Lord taught them that And being a good example to his
servants, he reminded them of that lesson in Luke chapter 18.
He reminded them of the lesson of importunity. Verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them
to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. They
ought to always pray and not quit, saying there was in a city
a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there
was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge
me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while.
But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God,
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I'll avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
Now you hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though
he bear long with them? I tell you, He will avenge them
speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? See what the Lord's
teaching us here? Just refuse to go away. Just
refuse to leave His feet. Just follow His feet as a beggar
and refuse to leave until He gives you what He promised that
He'd give you. That's what Jacob did, didn't
he? We read that to open the Scripture. Jacob wrestled with
the Lord. And he wouldn't quit. The Lord said, let me go, Jacob,
so I won't do it. I'm not letting you go. I'll just wrestle with
you forever. If I have to, I will not let you go, except you bless
me. You're gonna have to put up with
me until you bless me. That's important. Now, God has
covenant mercies, promised mercies to his people. And we know God's
promise can't fail. His purposes can't fail because
God can't fail. But that never makes a beggar
fatalistic. It might make a rebel fatalistic,
but it'll never make a beggar fatalistic. A beggar will never
say, well, God's going to do what He promised to do. God's
going to do what He said He's going to do. God's already decided
what He's going to do, so there's no use in me praying. There's
no use in me begging. A beggar will never say that.
Because it's the promises of God. It's the character of God
that encourage us to pray. It's the character, the promises
of God that encourage us to keep begging and keep begging and
keep begging. It's almost like somebody I know
that might might feed a stray cat. You know what happens when
you feed a stray cat? It's going to keep coming back
because you showed it. You're a soft touch. You showed
already you'll give it something to eat. That cat's going to keep
coming back. Is a stray cat smarter than me?
How merciful is our God being? Reckon we ought to keep coming
back for more? If you promise a needy beggar you're going to
get him something, he's going to keep begging until you get
him what you promised. Because you've already told him
you would. You've already told him you had something for him.
He's going to keep begging because he doesn't have another hope.
That's what a mercy beggar does. Our God said, don't give me any
rest. Beloved, let's not give Him any
rest. Let's keep begging Him to do
what He promised He'd do. God's promised He'll save a people. Lord, would You save me? Would
You? Would You save my loved ones?
Would You save my friends? Would You save my neighbors?
You promised You'd save a people. Lord, save me. God's promise, the blood of His
Son cleanses us from all sin. Lord, I'm a vile sinner. Would
You wash me in the blood of Christ? Would You cleanse me from my
sin in Your blood? God's promised He'll not rest until He makes
His people righteous. Lord, would You make me righteous?
Would You make me the righteousness of God in Him? God's promised
to marry a people, to be joined to them in union with Him. Would
you join yourself to me? Would you make me part of your
body? God's promised to never leave
you nor forsake His people. Oh God, I'm in darkness. Would you not forsake me? Would
you not leave me to myself? He promised you wouldn't forsake
your people. Please don't forsake me. God
promised. I'm going to put watchmen on
the walls. I'm going to send pastors to my people. They're going to
preach Christ to my people. Lord, would you send a preacher
to me? And when he comes, would you give me an ear to hear and
a heart to believe? Give it to me. God's promised
he'll work out the salvation of his people. Lord, I don't
have any words. Would you work out my salvation?
Would you do everything required for me? You said you would. God's
promised to seek out a people. Lord, I'm lost. I'm helpless.
I cannot find my way back. Would you seek me? I'll find
God when he seeks me. That's exactly what I'll find.
God's promised to redeem his people. Lord, I'm helpless. I'm hopeless. I've got nothing
to pay. Would you pay the ransom price for me and set me free?
I tell you, I hope that the Lord lays it on our heart to pray
that way. Because this I know, God has an eternal purpose for
his people. Look in Ezekiel chapter 36. God has an eternal purpose
for His people, but He always moves His people to pray before
He does it. I'll show you an example of that.
You know, no one is saved unless somebody's praying for them.
Did you know that? Nobody's ever going to be saved
until somebody's asking God to save them. Ezekiel 36 verse 24.
This is what He says His purpose is. I'll take you from among the
heathen and gather you out of all countries, and will bring
you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I'll take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart
of flesh. And I'll put my spirit within you, and cause you to
walk on my statutes, and you should keep my judgments and
do them. and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." That's
God's purpose for His people. That's what He promised to do
for His people. Now look at verse 37. Thus saith
the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock. See, God said, this is what I'm
gonna do. But I'll yet be inquired of the house of Israel. They're
going to ask me to do what I already promised to do. They're going
to ask me to do what I already purposed to do. And then I'm
going to do it. If a people begin to pray, say
there's a good, good sign. God's getting ready to do something
because before he does anything, he always lays it on the heart
of his people to pray. Remember when Saul of Tarsus,
after he was struck blind, somebody led him to the hand there on
the street called Strait. The Lord came to Ananias and
said, Ananias of Tarsus is down there, why don't you go down
there and preach to him. Ananias said, I don't know about
that. Now, I heard a lot of things about this fella. God said, you
go to him. For he prayeth. There sat that
poor blind man. Suddenly, He was dead. Suddenly,
the law slew him. Suddenly, he's in great need.
He's blind. He can't see a thing. He can't
do anything. And all he can do is sit there in his darkness
and pray. And what happened? God sent him
a preacher. And he revealed Christ to them.
So, prayers of a righteous man availeth much. Let's make use. Pray. Don't give the Lord rest. And pray that God would do what
He promised He'd do. Let's keep calling, let's keep
calling on the Lord. God said, in the day that you
seek me with your whole heart, you'll find me. Let's beg with
our whole heart and keep begging, asking God to do just exactly
what he promised to do. That gives us encouragement to
pray to. All right, on that note, let's
bow and pray. Our Father, How we thank you
for this blessed portion of your word that we just read. Father, we pray that you give
us a heart of a mercy beggar. Don't ever let us think we've
become so high and lifted up that we don't need you for everything. Without thee, we can do nothing. Father, we pray that you bless
your word. You promised your word would
not return unto you void. Father, we pray You bless Your
Word. Cause it to bring glory to the name of Your precious
Son. Cause Your Word to take root
in the hearts of Your people, to give life, to give repentance
and faith. Cause us to look ever more intently
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause Your Word to take root
in our heart that we might rest more fully in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Do not look anywhere but to Him. everything we need. Father, we're
thankful. Bless us, we pray, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his name's sake, we pray
and give thanks.