at preaching first. But Brother
Larry Chris told me he was going to be coming through town, so
I asked him to preach for us tonight. And I want to take the opportunity
to talk to you a little bit about my encouragement, and I hope
it will be yours, the things God's doing. Come with me, if
you will, to Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah 54. This chapter begins with a word
from God by his prophet, speaking to God's elect among the Gentiles,
speaking to us, the church of this gospel age, his church universally. Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. That is, we are to sing in faith,
believing God's promise that he will save his elect, and he
will call out his elect from the four corners of the earth
as we proclaim the gospel of his free grace. Yesterday, I
read a sermon by Mr. Spurgeon from Psalm 2, verses
8 and 9, for the Immortal Donald. Sent out a brief portion of it
and asked that we give consideration to this Spurgeon suggested that
we who are one with Christ Should pray with our Savior as he is
commanded to pray the Lord God said to him our covenant surety
ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance
and I thought what a statement We are one with Christ Let us
urge the Redeemer's prayer that God would give him the heathen
for his inheritance. And he has promised that he will. He will save his elect. He will
do it by the preaching of the gospel. And he's committed to
us this treasure of his grace in earthen vessels that we may
carry the light of the gospel and using this as our singular
weapon Assault the very gates of hell in this world for the
calling out of his elect and then the Lord makes this command
to us Here is our work and God's promise enlarge the place of
thy tent and Let them stretch forth the curtains of thine inhabit
thy habitations spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy
stakes that is make this house bigger and For thou shalt break
forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall
inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."
What a promise from our God. He says, you stretch out your
stakes, you enlarge your house. I promise you, your seed shall
increase continually. The seed of the church is the
seed of Christ. God's elect. He's going to call
them out at His appointed time. Each one shall be born again.
God, for some reason in His wise providence, a reason not in any
way to be attributed to this assembly, God for some reason
has given us in our labors together these 35 years a voice of influence
in His church and kingdom. He's allowed us the privilege
of being instrumental in establishing three gospel churches that are
vibrant, and we're thankful. He's given us the privilege of
supporting faithful missionaries, the Groovers in Mexico and the
Hellers in New Guinea, Brother Dan Parks down in St. Croix,
and pastors in the United States who need help. We try to assist
them as we're able to in other churches. And we're very, very
honored and privileged of God to do so. You send me every year
to various places in this country and in others. And, you know,
I just came back from England and Ireland. The Church and Ballad
Money started meeting together regularly. Three families, I
think, meeting together every Sunday afternoon at 2.30. Very
same time we meet here on Sunday mornings, they're meeting over
there and meeting in a nice place in Orange Hall and watch our
videos. I go preach to them a couple
of times a year. And I keep praying that God will
raise them up a pastor and establish a gospel church there. And you
join me in that prayer. They faithfully, faithfully give
themselves to the work. Those folks in Wasilla, Brother
Terry and Diane Warder and folks meet with them, just have been
meeting together for many, many years and doing the very same
thing. Hopefully, if Brother Minnie is able to make the transition
that he's planning on to Montana. Pastor of the church there, he
can have nearer access to the folks at Wasilla so they can
have people up more regularly. I suggested that they have Brother
Dan Parks while he's here, and he's going up in the next few
weeks. So you be in prayer for those congregations. And then
seven years ago, six or seven years ago, I'm not sure which,
I suggested to Brother Peter Minnie, who is the editor of
New Focus Magazine, as you know. small group in Edwardsburg, England,
and is also the one who has new GO publications, publishing my
books and those of George L. and a few others. I suggested
that he might want to consider heading a new focus conference
meeting that would encourage pastors and churches in Great
Britain to get together, just like we have our conference here.
And we started out meeting, a few folks came to the first meeting.
This past meeting, we had I'm going to guess about 90 people
at all three sessions. And I say all three sessions.
The Saturday session lasts all day long. We met about 2 o'clock
and didn't get back till about 11 o'clock. But we had a good,
good number of folks from various parts of Great Britain. And I
was greatly encouraged by it. Had a couple of pastors to come
who hadn't been there before. I met a young pastor from the
south of London. I say young man. 38 years old,
that's not so young, but he looks a lot younger than that, but
he's been following the preaching here and studying and he's been
taking his lumps for it and the direction he's moving, so I pray
that God is giving him direction as well in the preaching of the
gospel of his free grace. And then while I was in Ballymoney,
when Father Shelby and I were there, we had the privilege of
meeting a gang, a man by the name of Mervin McCabe. Back, this has been a long time
ago, a long time ago, there was a man in, I think he lived in
London, it was in England, who got all of our tapes for years
and he had a tape lending library and he sent my tape for the Mayhem,
Feral Griswold, and a few others to folks on a lending library
type thing. And then he eventually turned
it over to somebody in Ireland, turned out to be Mervyn McCabe.
And for the McCabe, knew Russell Smith, who was at that time working
with their Royal Ulster Constabulary, and had been religious all his
life but didn't know God. And Russell would listen to a
little bit of a tape and roll down his window and throw it
away. And Mervyn would give him another one. He'd listen to a
little bit, roll down the window, and throw it away. And after going
through a bunch of them, one of them got his attention, and
God got him. And Russell is the one who's
been instrumental in getting the work in ballet money started.
Well, Brother McCabe and his wife were at the first meeting
in Ballymoney the other night, and he informed me, as I told
you Sunday morning, he now has a large book distribution, and
he had just sent 400 copies of the Discovering Christ commentaries,
Ruth and Solomon, to Burma, and sent 31 crates or pallets of
the Discovering Christ commentaries to South Africa. So God continues
to open doors of utterance for the gospel literally around the
world. And I ask you to pray that God
will make us faithful, make me faithful, and make you faithful
in giving ourselves to this work in the preaching of the gospel
of God's grace. Two things have been very instrumental in this
outreach. Two things I see have been very
instrumental. For 35 years, we've been putting
out the bulletin, writing at least a couple of articles every
week, written somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 articles in that
period of time, put it together in a booklet. Some of us used
to get together downstairs and do it manually. And you smile. She was always there. And there's
a lot of work. And then we were able to start
having it printed and distributed, and people hang on to it and
use it a lot. So many open doors have come
around the world through that seemingly insignificant effort. I encourage preachers, this one
sitting right here, when he first started at Sylacauga, I said,
write articles. You write them. You write them.
I get bulletins all the time. This is all right. I'm not belittling
this, but I have read the articles many, many times, most of the
time by the time they get to my desk, because it's just circulated
a lot. But people we minister to want
to read and hear that which God's given us for them. And I'll guarantee
you, as long as I've been associated with folks at Sylacauga, if they
pick up a bulletin, they see an article by Larry and an article
by me, and they've only known him a little while, just known
him a little while, I'll guarantee they're going to read what he
has to say if they don't read what I have to say. He's their pastor. They
know him. And I encourage preachers to use the gifts God's given
them And don't neglect the responsibility. Give themselves to the work.
God honors that which honors Him, and God honors those who
honor Him. And then, several years ago,
we were able to start this Free Grace radio ministry and the
internet ministry, and God has so greatly blessed, so greatly
blessed, so many, many doors open for the furtherance of the
gospel. Now watch this promise. It goes on in verse four. Our
responsibility is to enlarge the place of our tents. Never
be content. Never be content seeking the
salvation of God's elect. And God says, fear not, for thou
shalt not be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
any more, the reproach of a people who didn't know God. For thy
maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall
he be called. He who is our creator is married
to us. who is the King of the universe,
the God of glory, is our Redeemer. That text speaks of particular
effectual redemption, particular distinguishing grace, particular
effectual love. The Lord God made us for Himself,
married Himself to us, married us to Him, redeemed us by the
precious blood of His darling Son, And he who is the God of
the whole earth, he's the holy one of this people, Israel, his
elect. For the Lord hath called thee,
called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, called
thee as a woman forsaken, abandoned, grieved, and a wife of youth
when thou wast refused. But no one would have you. God
called you, saith thy God. And then he speaks of why it
was that he had left his elect among the Gentiles for so long.
Why it is that his people, some are called at one time, some
at another, some in youth, some in adulthood, some when they're
old. I've had the privilege of baptizing
several people in their 80s and 90s. God called them just before
they left this world. And I had the privilege of baptizing
them and watching them walk with our Redeemer in the blessed faith
of Christ. God giving them faith in Him
for a good while before they left here. But God calls His
elect at an appointed time. Well, why does He leave them
for so long to themselves? Read what it says. For a small
moment I forsaken them. For a small moment. It appears
that He's abandoned His people. It appears that He has nothing
to do with us. But with great mercies will I
gather thee. There are some who are yet sitting
here, perhaps, who feel yourselves abandoned of God, under the wrath
of God, and rightly so, for you have no faith in our Redeemer.
But there's a day coming. If you're His, God's going to
get you. With great mercies, he'll gather you. He said, in
a little wrath, I hid my face from thee for a moment, for a
moment. What is 10 years or 20 years
or 50 years or 80 years in comparison with eternity? But with everlasting
kindness, will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this, now he talks about
his covenant. He talks about his covenant.
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn
that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so
have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor forsake
thee." God's anger, God's wrath against ungodliness is stamped
upon the conscience of all human beings by nature. so that every
man and woman has a consciousness that is under the wrath of God
and deserves God's wrath. But there never was a time when
God was angry with us. Never was a time when God had
turned his back upon us, though he deliberately appears to be
so, that we may be compelled by his grace to seek it. Watch
what it says in verse 10. For as the mountains shall depart,
And the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Who's he talking to? This barren
one, this forsaken one, his elect called from among the nations
of the earth. Look at verse 11. Here God says the salvation of
this people who is married to himself is certain. Oh, thou
afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted. Behold, I
will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations
with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of
gates and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant
stones. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and learned of the Father, the Savior says, cometh unto
me. And great shall be the peace of thy children. This is God's
promise concerning his elect who have not yet known the comfort
of his grace. Verse 14. In righteousness shalt
thou be established. I will establish you in my grace
in righteousness. Thou shalt be far from oppression. That is nothing going to hurt
you. For thou shalt not fear. And from terror, for it shall
not come near thee. And then he promises the sure
triumph of his church. They shall surely gather together,
but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for thy sake. Whosoever opposes you is
going to fall by my hand for your sake. Behold, I have created
a smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster
to destroy. God says, the destruction, the
judgment that comes upon men, that's by my decree, by my hand. And then it says, no weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper. Every tongue that shall
rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the And their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord." Oh, what a blessed, blessed, blessed word
from God. What encouragement for us to
give ourselves relentlessly to the work God's given us. Some
of you here have reached the time when your bodies are weak,
your hair is gray, and you may tend to think, well, I've done my part now. I'll let
the young folks take over. Don't ever be so foolish. Murrow
hard until God takes your breath from you. He has a work for you
to do for his glory, for me and for his people, for the saving
of his church. Whatever it is, give yourself
to it. as you did in your youth. Give
yourself to it. Worshipping and serving the Redeemer. You folks visiting with us for
Lexington, Don and Gina, I say to you what I say to Don. Give
yourselves relentlessly to this. What a privilege. What a privilege. God's given us the treasure of
his grace. Let us carry it into the corners
of the earth with all the anticipation promised us right here. He's
going to call out His elect. No weapon formed against us will
prosper. No gate from hell can stand before
us. And all who would gather against
us shall fall before us because God's promised it and God will
do it. And among those who fall will
be multitudes who will fall in repentance and faith, trusting
our Redeemer, saved by His almighty grace. To your word, to your promises,
from the depths of our hearts, we say amen. And we ask, as you've
commanded your savior, our savior, your servant, your son, our surety,
to ask, and you give the heathen for his inheritance. He has asked,
and now we ask our father, that in our day, you will give the
heathen for an inheritance to your son, for the glory of his
name. Bless us now as we sing your
praise. Bless your word to our hearts. And I ask for your blessings
upon Brother Larry as he comes to preach the gospel to us. Thank
you for him. Thank you for him. Thank you
for the privilege of serving you with him. And we thank you,
our God, for you putting him where he is and for that ministry
in Sylacauga. God, will you bless that congregation.
How I thank you for them. How you have blessed them. How
you have blessed us. And we ask your blessings yet
upon us that we may faithfully serve you in this day for Christ's
sake. Amen. All right. After Lindsay
leaves us in a song and whoever's singing sings, Larry will come
and preach for us.