Thank you, Joy. We're going to miss you. Good evening, everyone. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 228 from the hardbacked hymnal 228, My Faith
Has Found a Resting Place. Let's all stand together. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the Ever-Living One. His wounds for me shall bleed. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves. This ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him. He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. My great physician heals the
sick, the loss he came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Please be seated. Good evening. Todd and I were talking yesterday
and we agreed that our favorite hymn is the one we're singing
at the time and our favorite book in the Bible is the one
we're preaching through. And the favorite conference that
we have is the one we just experienced. It was such a blessing. I'm so
thankful. So encouraged that Moyers are
here tonight. So glad you guys came. Annie, glad you're here. We have a lot of folks sick.
I know Brian's sick. Ceryl, I talked to Ceryl today,
could hardly talk. Adam's sick. Noah's sick. Abigail Hickman,
and she has health issues, and she had 105 fever today. They
were taking her to the emergency room. And all the Murray's are sick.
except for Irene, I think. She's taking care of all of them. Fred said if he needed anything
to ask him and he would be happy to help out the best he can. All right, let's open our Bibles
to Psalm 19, Psalm 19. I'm thankful all those folks
that are sick were able to be here last weekend. Lord kept
them healthy through that time. Pray their sickness will be short-lived. Let's begin reading in verse
7 of Psalm 19. And the words that are used here,
law, testimony, statutes, commandments, those are all synonyms. describing the whole of scripture,
okay? All of God's word. So the law of the Lord, not just
a reference to the Ten Commandments, this is God's word. The law of
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand
his errors? Who has really any understanding
of his sin? Like Todd said Sunday, we're
too stupid to have a sense of sin. We just, who can understand
his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. The things that I'm not even
aware of, Lord, take them away. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redeemer. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly Father,
Once again, you've blessed us with the blessing of being here
in this place and the promise of thy presence and the power
of thy spirit, the truthfulness of thy word, and how hopeful
we are, Lord, that you would meet with us and that you would
speak to our hearts. We pray for our brethren. Lord,
you've been pleased to give them an affliction, many of our of
our brethren are very sick. And Lord, we pray for your hand
of strength and healing. We pray that you would cause
them in this time of weakness to find their strength in Christ. And we pray, Lord, that you would
give strength to their bodies and recover them quickly. And
Lord, we pray especially for little Abigail right now as the
doctors tend to her. We pray that you would give them
the wisdom they need to treat her well. And Lord, we pray for
your hand of healing and strength to be on her little body. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 44. Hymn number 44 in your spiral
hymn book, number 44. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? ? We as such to Thee draw near ? ? Let Thy spirit dwell within
us ? ? With that love that casts out fear ? ? Matchless Savior,
let us know Thee ? ? As the Lord our righteousness ? ? Cause our
hearts to cleave unto thee ? Come and with thy presence bless Open
now thy precious treasure, let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Deanna had cataract surgery yesterday. Delphis had to get on the plane
and go home today sick. Deanna's doing well. They're
watching now. We open your Bibles with me to
Isaiah 62 please. Isaiah 62. Also, We had a memorial funeral service
and burial for Lorraine Hudson's father today. And Lorraine's
family was there, and they're all unbelievers, and so I had
a chance to preach the gospel to them. But remember Lorraine
and John. Lorraine's been taking care of
her dad for a long time, and he passed away last Wednesday.
So her and John will be able to be with us more regularly
now. But had that service today. It was, you know, we were talking
about death recently and how believers think about it all
the time. And it's not a depressing subject at all. It's something
we long for. We hope for it. Today, after
the funeral service, was talking to the funeral director, and
she was in her 70s, a very nice lady. And she was explaining
to me where the cemetery was. And I said, oh yeah, I know that
cemetery very well. I said, my mom and dad are buried
there. My brother's buried there. And
I'm going to be buried there real soon. And she said, oh, don't
say that. Don't say that. You got a long
time. And here's a woman that's dealing
with death every day. every day and she's in her seventies
and she thinks you know don't don't talk about that what hope death has been defeated graves
been conquered old death where's thy sting sting of death the
sting of sin is the law the strength of sin is the law and uh... and
christ fulfilled the law We don't worry about it. We long for it. You have your Bibles open, Isaiah
chapter 62. I've titled this message, and she shall be called. She shall be called. I preached
from this passage Friday night, if you remember. And just briefly
at the end of the message, passed over this last verse. And as
I was looking at it, I thought, this is worthy of a message by
itself. because this is where the Lord is speaking of his church,
his people, and he says four things about them. He says that
she's going to be called holy, she's going to be called redeemed,
she's going to be called sought out, and she's going to be called
not forsaken. Those are the four things that
the Lord uses to describe His church. She's holy, she's redeemed,
she is sought out, and she's not forsaken. And the Lord gives
us the ability to believe that that's who we are. By His grace,
what hope, what comfort, what a a way to overcome. Everybody
else is living in fear and denial, in fear of death and denial of
it. And here we are, the holy people,
the redeemed of the Lord, those who are sought out and those
who are not forsaken. Now holiness is a concept that
none of us are able to comprehend. But the unbeliever has no understanding
whatsoever of holiness. The unbeliever thinks that holiness
is a lifestyle that's different and above the norm. They don't know
that holiness is God's complete inability to accept anything
less than perfection. He's holy. He's undefiled. He's separate from sinners. The
word holy here means to be separated. And there's nothing that we have
in common with God by nature. By nature, he's holy. He's other
than we are. He is harmless, undefiled, holy,
separate from sinners. That's what the Lord says. Look
at verse 12, and they shall call them the holy people. Now, the Lord in chapter 65, you'll
turn with me over just a page or two to chapter 65, at verse
5, the Lord rebukes Israel for trusting in their own self-righteousness
as their holiness. And religious people do that
all the time. Anytime you hear a religious
person pointing their finger out at the sins of the world,
they are professing themselves to be holier than thou. And here's
what God says about that. Look at verse 5. These this, this pharisaical spirit
says, stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier
than thou. And these, God says, are a smoke
in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. Truth is that holy people do
not believe that their holiness has anything whatsoever to do
with what they do or what they don't do. He that sanctifies, that's the
word holy, and they which are sanctified are all as one, whereby
he's not ashamed to call them his brethren. As he is, so are
we. We are holy by virtue of our
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made him to be our righteous,
our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, that's holiness,
and our redemption. Where is boasting then? But God
says there can be a holy people. Peter speaks of that. Turn with
me to 1 Peter chapter 2. They're holy. They're set apart. They've been made holy by virtue
of His holiness and His righteousness and His beauty and His comeliness.
Look what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2 at verse 7. unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious." Now, we use that word in the south to speak
of our children, don't we? Oh, they're so precious. And
usually what we mean by that is they're cute and they're precious
to us. But this word means priceless.
And we would certainly say that about our children when we say
they're precious, they are priceless. But here's what this word means.
He's the pearl of great price. We're not going to sell him out
for anything. Unto you which believe he, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is priceless, but unto them which be disobedient. And that word is the word from
which we get our word apathy. Apathy. The natural man is apathetic. He doesn't think about Christ,
doesn't care about Christ. Christ is not precious to him. The stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. The builders took this stone
that the whole building was to be designed for and it didn't
fit into their structure and they cast it out into the yard
and now the workers that are working on the on the building,
that's their religious network, they're stumbling over the stone.
And that's the stone, that's the capstone, that's become the
head of the corner, that's the foundation stone, that's a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at
the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed. They
stumble at the Word of God. They rest the scriptures. They
twist the meaning of the scriptures to justify themselves. And the
Lord says, they were appointed for that. But not you. Not you. Oh, no. You are a chosen generation. You'd be just like that had the
Lord not chosen you. and the Lord not put you in Christ
in the covenant of grace before the world began and he not have
mercy upon you and he not shown you himself and and then please
to say you'd be just like just but you are a chosen generation
a royal priesthood a holy nation a holy nation that's what I say
is talking about we're we've we've been set apart from the
world so that Christ is precious to us, we're not apathetic about
him. And the word of God is true and right, and we don't twist
it, we don't change it to fit our doctrine. A peculiar people. Most of us are pretty peculiar.
We have our peculiar moments, don't we? But that's not what
the word here means. It means purchased, a purchased
people. We're going to see that in Isaiah
in the verse we're looking at, a redeemed, redeemed of the Lord. That's the word here, a purchased
people that you should so forth the praises of him who had called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times
past were not a people, but are now the people of God. which
had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. So we show
forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness. We'd
be right there. We were blind, dead in our trespasses
and sins. We didn't make a choice. The
Lord redeemed and the Lord said, you're a holy people and I'm
gonna call you out and I'm gonna make a difference. I'm gonna
make a difference. When the Lord went through Egypt.
The scripture said he made a difference between the children of Israel
and the Egyptians. He made a difference between
them and he's still doing that. The rest of the world is like
Egypt. God brings his people out and
he raises up a prophet. That's what the Lord told Moses.
He said, I'm going to raise up another prophet like unto yourself.
And that's a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who came into
Egypt and brought us out. brought us out. The scripture
says, not a hoof was left behind. Not one sheep, not one dog, not
one animal, nothing. Everybody came out. Everybody
came out. And that's not to say that everybody
that came out was a believer. That's just to say that the Lord's
not going to leave any of his sheep behind. All right? Go back with me to our text.
A holy people. Not holy by virtue of believing
they're better than other people. Not holy because they do something
different or they don't do something that other people do. But holy
by virtue of their union with Christ. He has made them to be
holy. Listen to Psalm 4 verse 3. The
Lord hath set apart him that is godly to himself. Who are them that are godly?
Well, the scripture says this is the mystery of godliness that you live an obscure ascetic
life. No, this is the mystery of godliness
that God was manifested in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our godliness and by virtue of the fact that that we are
in him, God says, the people. Isaiah, look at verse 18 in Isaiah
chapter 63. Verse 18 in Isaiah chapter 63.
We'll begin at verse 17. Oh Lord, why hast thou made us
to err from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear? Return
for thy servant's sake the tribes of thine inheritance the people
of thy holiness have possessed it. But a little while, our adversaries
has trodden down my sanctuary. We are thine, thou never bearish
rule over them. They were not called by thy name."
Lord, we've forsaken you, Lord, don't forsake us. Don't forsake
us. And that's the only hope that
we have of being called the holy people. the holy people. And
if properly understood, it's the most humbling description
that God has given to His people. What is holiness? It's righteousness.
It's righteousness. And He shall be called Jehovah
Sedkinu, the Lord is our righteousness. And then 10 chapters later, you
remember the prophet said, and she, she shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. Perfectly holy. It's the only
way we're going to have any acceptance before God. His eyes, Habakkuk
said, are too pure to look upon iniquity. All sins got to be
put away. We've got to stand perfect before
God. I told those folks today and
they, I mean, raised some eyebrows. I said, I know what folks say.
They say, you know, just do your best. Do your best and God will
be satisfied. And I told him, I said, first
of all, none of us have ever done our best. Never. And had we ever done our best,
it wouldn't be good enough. God's not satisfied. He requires
holiness, perfection. And that's what we have in Christ.
That's what we have in Him. And so they should be called
the holy people. Why are they holy? Because they've
been redeemed. They've been redeemed. Now that
word means bought, paid for. They were sold into slavery and
the Lord came and paid the ransom price to deliver them. And that
word that's given in our scriptures that the Lord uttered in his
dying moments when he said, it is finished. That's one word
in the original language. And if you went and paid off
a bill today, they'll take a rubber stamp and what do they put? Paid
in full. Paid in full. That's exactly what that word
means. When the Lord said, it is finished, paid in full. Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. And the Lord didn't make that
payment to us, he made it to the Father, didn't he? And the
Father accepted the payment that he made. And so Isaiah says,
why do you spend money for that which is not bread? Why are you
trying to work your way to heaven? The Lord's not looking to anything
we do or don't do. Our redemption comes only by
the shed. Without the shed and the blood,
there should be no redemption. There's no purchasing. God required
a blood sacrifice, didn't he? And that lamb that was slain
in the garden? You know in the garden, If you
see that lamb that the Lord killed as a type of Christ, which he
was, and that we are in Christ, Adam died twice that day. Adam died twice that day. He
died spiritually. He died because of his sin, and
then he died in Christ. You see, the Lord The Lord redeemed
him as soon as he sinned. As soon as he sinned, they redeemed
him. But we know that the blood of
bulls and goats never put away sin. It was only one person that could
offer to God a sacrifice that would meet the requirements of
that ransom price, and that was the sinless blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that's what he did. And so the Lord says
they shall be called a holy people and they shall be called redeemed
of the Lord. The Lord's going to redeem them.
He's going to, there was one price, one price. That's why
the Lord said to Moses, when I see the blood, when I see the
blood, that's the price. We've been bought with a price,
not with the corruptible things such as silver and gold, but
with incorruptible. even with the precious blood
of a lamb who is without spot and without blemish. We've been
bought. You're not your own. If you're
in Christ, you're part of his church. You've been bought with
a price. And it's paid in full. You can't
go and pay on something that's already been paid off, can you?
You just can't do it. If it's been paid off, no one's
gonna accept more payment for it. It's paid for. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. The Lord Jesus Christ is, I should
say, a successful Redeemer. He doesn't offer redemption. He actually accomplished redemption. Ruth was in desperate straits
when she came back from Moab, didn't she? Wasn't she? She needed
a redeemer. And the Lord provided a kinsman
redeemer in Boaz. What a beautiful type of Christ
Boaz is. She's gleaning in his field.
There's a picture of what we're doing right now. We're gleaning
through the scriptures. and trying to get those grains
of corn to feed our souls and Boaz comes along and he falls
in love with her, takes her to himself and does everything necessary
to satisfy the demands of the law. He met with that kinsman
that was nearer to her than he was and he reconciled with him
and he bought her, made her his wife and everything that Boaz
had now became Ruth's. we have a redeemer. Thirdly,
not only shall she be called the holy people, the redeemed
of the Lord, and thou shalt be called sought out. By who? Who are we sought out
by? Well, the scripture says all
we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has gone into our
own way. And the Lord said, I'm gonna lead the 99 and I'm gonna
go into the wilderness and I'm gonna find every one of my sheep,
I'm gonna bring it to myself. Sought out of him. You remember
when David was going to put on Saul's armor to fight against
Goliath and the armor didn't fit. And David told Saul, he
said, listen, he said, he said, I've taken my sheep out of the
mouth of a lion. I've taken them out of the mouth
of a bear. He said, this uncircumcised Philistine, he's nothing. My
God's going to deliver him. How many times, how many times
the Lord has taken you out of the mouth of a lion? roaring
lion, Satan is what he is, isn't he? Seeking whom he may devour. And our David comes and snatches
his sheep right out of the jaws of death. Why? Because they're sought out. They're
sought out. He's not gonna let them be destroyed.
It's a miracle that the Lord protected us before he called
us. I mean, each of us can look back
at our lives before we were called and think, boy, how many times
the Lord could have, I could have died, I could have, you
know, but no, no. It's a miracle that a sheep would
survive in the wilderness by himself. But the Lord had his
eye on every one of his sheep and continues to have his eye
on them and in the day of his power, when he's ready to call
them, he seeks them out, he brings them to himself, The scripture
says no man seeketh after God at any time. We didn't seek Him. We didn't wake up one day and
say, I'm gonna seek the Lord. I'm gonna find God. I remember
in the years past when they would have religious campaigns, you
know, I remember one time there was a bumper sticker, we found
Him. We found Him. You know, we've been looking
for God and we discovered Him. No, no man seeketh. God's gotta
find us. And he doesn't have to, he knows
where we are. You know, sometimes people ask
me, well, what about someone that's in a place in the world
where there is no gospel and they're one of God's elect? What's
gonna happen? Lord knows where they are. He'll get the gospel
to them or he'll move them and get them to the gospel, but he's
not gonna lose one of his sheep. Why? Because they're sought out.
They're sought out. Don't you love the story of Mephibosheth,
Jonathan's son? And David asked Ziba, he said,
is there anyone left of the house of Saul that I can show kindness
toward for Jonathan's sake? And Ziba said, well, you know,
there's a crippled boy. He's crippled in a fall when
he was fleeing Jerusalem after the death of his father, his
grandfather, and he's hiding out in Lodabar, a land of no
bread. That's what Lodabar means. His
name is Mephibosheth. And he's scared to death. He's
the last descendant left of the house of Saul. And you know that,
you know, in those days, if there was any descendant at all left,
you killed every one of them. And, you know, so that there
was no, no one to, to challenge your reign. And, you know, Mephibosheth
lived every day thinking David's going to send for me. And then
one day knock on the door and David's
soldiers are standing outside. Mephibosheth, Come with us, Mephibosheth."
Well, this is it. This is it. David fetched him. That's what he told Ziba. He
said, go fetch him. Go fetch him. They shall be called
sought out. And they brought Mephibosheth
back to David and David saw Mephibosheth. David loved Jonathan. He loved
Jonathan. and there must have been a lightness
in the facial appearances of Mephibosheth to his father, because
he looked at Mephibosheth, he'd never seen him before, but he
knew his father. Mephibosheth's grown now, and
he said, oh, Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. What would Mephibosheth say? What would the king have to do
with a dead dog such as I? Why would you have anything to
do with me? And what David say, sit down here at my table. You're
going to eat of the king's fare the rest of your life. We're
going to hide those crippled feet underneath my tablecloth
and I'm going to take care of you the rest of your life. He was sought out, sought out. The Lord was traveling through
Jericho one day and There was a tax collector by the name of
Zacchaeus. And God had put into his heart
at least a spirit of curiosity about who this Jesus was. And
he climbed himself up in a tree because he couldn't see and wanted
to get a better view of what was going on. The Lord stopped
in his tracks. So what'd he say? Zacchaeus,
come down. I'm going to your house today.
Salvation's coming to your house today. Zacchaeus was sought out,
wasn't he? He was sought out. And then when
the disciples wanted to do what they'd been doing all their lives,
any time they traveled from Galilee up north down to Jerusalem, you
went around Samaria. You didn't want to get anywhere
near the Samaritans. They were filthy. They were worse
than Gentiles to the Jews. Well, the Lord say, oh no, we're
going through Samaria. We're going to go through Sychar.
I must need to go through Samaria. And the Lord stopped there at
the well and the woman collecting water in the middle of the day.
Go get your husband. Lord, I don't have a husband.
You spoke the truth. You had five husbands and the
man you live with now is not your husband. Oh, I perceive
that thou art a prophet. Oh, if you knew, if you knew
who it is that saith unto you, give me to drink, you would ask
him and he would give you living water. The Lord revealed himself. Oh, we know, we know that when
Messiah comes, he's going to take care of everything. And
she believed that. He that speaketh unto you is
he. And about that time the disciple
showed up and she runs back down to Sychar where she said, come
meet a man who's told me everything I ever did, everything I ever
did, everything I ever did in myself was nothing but sin. And everything that I ever did
in him is perfect holiness and all my acceptance before God
is based on who he is and what he's done. A people that are sought out
Genesis chapter 24 Isaac is older now and in need of a wife, and Abraham's
gotten very old. And Abraham calls his servant
to him and says, I want you to make a promise to me. I want
you to make a promise to me that you will not get a wife for my
son from the Canaanites, but you will go back to Mesopotamia,
which is where I came from, and you'll find of my kinsmen a wife
for my son. And the servant agreed to that
and put his, remember that's where he put his hand under his
thigh and he swore to him. I'm a picture of that covenant
grace. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
comes with his name written upon his thigh, King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. It's a picture of his strength
and his commitment to the covenant, to the promises that he's made
to his people. And the servant goes back to Nahor and And he asked the Lord, we ask
Abraham first of all, he said, well, what if she won't come?
You remember what Abraham said? The Lord's going to send an angel
before you. He's going to prepare the way.
And that servant's a picture of a gospel preacher and the
angel's a picture of the Holy Spirit who goes and prepare the
hearts. And the servant says, Lord, if this is the woman that
you would have for Isaac, then have her to offer me water. and
have her to take care of my camels. And while Rebecca came out, she
saw him and she said, she offered him water and then she took care
of the camels. And the servant goes into the home
and asked Rebecca's father for her hand for Isaac. And what
did the father say? Ask her, she's grown, it's her
choice what she say. I will go. I will go. She was
sought out, wasn't she? What a picture of the church.
Isaac being a picture of Christ and Rebecca being a picture of
the church. It's a great mystery concerning Christ and his church,
isn't it? And so what all these types and pictures in the scriptures
are, are a picture of what the Lord has done in saving his people. They're redeemed, they're bought,
paid for. I used this illustration some
time ago about a man who is all his life he's sending deposits
into the bank preparing for his retirement. Each week he sends
in a deposit and one day he retires And he goes down to the bank
with his head held high, proudly walks into the bank and decides
he's going to start withdrawing his money. Goes up to the counter
and identifies himself and the teller looked at his ID and confirmed
his identification and she said, just a minute, sir. And she called
the bank president and the bank president looks at the ID and
looks at him and confirms his identification and the bank president
looks over at the security guard and says to the security guard,
lock the door, cuff this man, call the FBI. This is the guy
that's been sending us counterfeit checks, counterfeit money. This is the guy that's been sending
us counterfeit money. That's the way it's going to
be for a lot of folks when they stand before God. They think
they're going They think they're going to draw from the deposits
that they've made. Lord, Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in your name. They're trying desperately to
redeem themselves. And the Lord's going to say,
lock them up. They've been sending in counterfeit money. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that will redeem a
sinner's soul. The Lord says they're holy because
of that redemption. They're sought out. I'm going
to seek them out, every one of them. Not one of them is going
to be lost. And that's a comfort to believers
who have unbelieving children, isn't it? Unbelieving family
members that we pray for, and just hope that, oh Lord, be merciful
to them. Most of you all know I have a
brother that was here Sunday. He lives two miles from here.
Been there the whole time this church has been built. And I
tell you that to encourage you to pray for my brother. I'm so
hopeful that he'll come back. He said he would. He said he
would. Lord, seek him out. Give him
no rest. Save his soul. And they shall not be forsaken.
I love what the Lord said what Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy
2, if we believe not, yet he remaineth faithful for he cannot
deny himself. He cannot deny himself. That's
right. If we're holy, if we've been
sought out and we've been redeemed and we're in Christ, the Lord
cannot deny himself. Let me show you a verse of scripture.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. This is good. You'll be encouraged to see this. There's only one man that ever
had perfect faith. perfect faith is to believe God
with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul.
And the only way that we can stand perfect before God is to
be in that man and to have his faith as our faith, as our acceptance
before God. Now, does that mean that we don't
have faith? No, we do have faith. The believer believes the gospel
more than he believes anything else, more than he believes anything. He believes the gospel more than
he believes that he's alive. He believes the gospel. Whether
or not he believes, he's saved. He believes the gospel. And yet our faith is so mixed
with unbelief. Every time we say, Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief, we've just got that old flesh hanging
on all the time, don't we? Look at Matthew chapter 28 at
verse 17. Verse 16 says, then the 11 disciples
went away into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
He told them to go to Galilee and I'm gonna meet you there. And when they saw him, they worshiped
him. But, and I have no idea why that
word S-O-M-E is in our text. And it ought to be italicized
at least. It's not in the original language. They all doubt it. They all doubt it. Just like every one of us doubts.
We doubt ourselves, don't we? We don't doubt what God says.
We doubt ourselves. We doubt our part in the gospel. It's too good to be true. When
they saw the resurrected Lord, they thought, this is too good
to be true. Is this wiping their eyes and
looking and wondering, is this possible? Isn't that your experience? They worshiped him, but doubted. But doubted. Our faith is Let me show you another one.
Turn with me to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1 is just over
a page from where you just were at verse 18. Mark chapter 1,
18. And straightway they forsook
their nets and followed Him. So as soon as the Lord called
them, it was an effectual call. They forsook everything and they
followed after Christ and for the next three years they were
right there listening to every word watching his miracles, obeying
him, whatever he said, do and go. That's what they wanted to
do. And then the Lord was arrested and everybody's life was on the
line. Everybody's life was on the line.
Turn with me to Mark chapter 14. So they forsook everything. They forsook their nets. They
forsook everything when he called them. And now look at Mark chapter
14 at verse 50, and they all forsook
him and fled. Now, you say, what are you getting
to preacher? Well, a city not forsaken. If we look to the to the strength
and sincerity and commitment of our faith as the hope of our
not being forsaken. We're just like those disciples.
Oh, we'll leave everything for him and then there'll be times
that we'll be like Peter and we'll be like them and forsake
him. But that's not the hope of our
salvation. Hope of our salvation is him not forsaking us. A city
not forsaken of him. Not forsaken of him. All the disciples for so Kim. Turn to me back to Isaiah chapter
42. Verse 16. Isaiah 42 verse 16 and I will
bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them
in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before
them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them,
and not forsake them." You see, when our faith fails, His doesn't. And when we forsake Him, He never
forsakes us. In another place it says, your
mother and father might forsake you, but I'm not going to forsake
you. Never leave you nor forsake you. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
41, back just a page at verse Verse 17, when the poor and the
needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth
for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will
not forsake them. I'm going to open rivers of water
for them. I'm never going to forsake them. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, let's
turn there. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, verse
7. But we have this treasure, what
treasure? The Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. And that's what we are, isn't
it? We're just earthen vessels. That the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side. What are you troubled by? What's
the biggest thing that troubles you? Is it your financial situation? Is it the world we live in? Is
it the news? Is it your circumstances? No. No. I know what troubles you.
The same thing troubles me. The Lord says, I've prepared
a table for you in the presence of thine enemies. And that's
what the Lord is doing right now. He's feeding us in the presence
of our enemies. No, we're not one another's enemy.
Your biggest enemy is sitting in the same seat you're sitting
in, isn't it? That's our problem, isn't it? That's what distresses
us more than anything else is our sin. And the Lord says, The
glory of your salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ and he's in
an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power might be of him
and not of you. And he says, we are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed. Are you a contradiction
to yourself? Do you just perplex yourself?
How can I have, I mean, I'm Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in my heart.
You know, I believe the gospel with all my heart. I want to
know him and experience his presence and his power and yet I can be
so worldly and so fleshly at the same time. I'm perplexed. But not in despair. Why? Persecuted but not forsaken. Not forsaken. Oh, our Lord calls His people holy, redeemed,
sought out, and not forsaken. I want to be a part of that description,
don't you? It's His work, isn't it? It's his work. We're the
benefactors. Beneficiaries, I should say.
We get all the blessings of that. May God be merciful to make us
holy. Count the blood of Christ for
our redemption. Seek us out. Lord, keep seeking
us out. You still need the Lord to seek
you out, don't you? Every day, you need him to seek you out.
And we do seek him, but we seek him only because he seeks us. And he promises and never forsake
us. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly
father, we're so very thankful for the precious promises of
thy word. We're very hopeful. That you
will. Put into our hearts a desire. To be called holy. Redeemed. Sought out. And not forsaken. All for thy glory. Well, we ask
it in Christ's sake or for Christ's sake, Amen. Tom 475, let's stand together, number
475. ? Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it ? Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed through His
infinite mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus,
no language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of his
presence with me doth continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent,
His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. I know I shall see in His beauty
the King in whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
and giveth me songs in the night, redeemed Redeemed, redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. Bye.