Behold my soul, the love of God. Behold the grace most free. Before all world, His purpose
stood. His heart was fixed on me. Selected by eternal love, the
covenant firm and sure, the triune God agreed in love, salvation
to secure. My soul was given to the Son
He promised to redeem By blood and righteousness His own He
would my soul reclaim In the due time Emmanuel came To live
and die for me He lives today and bears my name, Christ is
my surety. In love He sent His Spirit down,
Who gave me life and grace. He drew me and I followed on,
My Savior to embrace. Now I rejoice in covenant love,
Amazing grace I sing. I now am calm, Good morning. We're going to be looking at
one verse of scripture to begin with in Isaiah 55. Isaiah chapter 55. And we want to Welcome Fred and Mary Jane back
home. I guess it's gotten cold up north. The snowbirds have flown south.
We're glad they're here. Also, Edward Emmerich's wife,
Lauren, his father has been suffering with liver cancer and he passed
away yesterday. So I wanted you all to know about
that too. Remember to pray for their family.
All right, let's ask the Lord's blessings on our time together. Our merciful heavenly Father, we express, Lord, our absolute,
complete, and total dependence upon you in this hour. and pray
that you would enable us to come before thy throne of grace to
find help in our time of need. Lord, we come before you as mercy
beggars, needy sinners, hoping and trusting that you would be
pleased to send your spirit in power, to bless your word, to
give us ears to hear, Call us out of darkness into thy marvelous
light. Cause the light of the gospel
to shine in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. Give
us hope, give us faith. Give to us Lord that peace that
can only come from you. Enabling us to. Rest our souls. In the glorious person. And finished
work of thy dear son. Lord, we do pray for Lauren and
for her family and we ask that you'd be pleased to use this
time to speak to their hearts or that they would find hope
and comfort in Christ. We thank you for Robyn Deanna
and we thank you for the success of her surgery and pray Lord
now for your hand of strength and healing to be upon her and
for you to give her a full recovery and bring them back here to worship
and fellowship with us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Isaiah chapter 55, and I will express to you my hope
this morning. is that the Lord would call us. That He would speak irresistibly
and effectually to our hearts and call us to Himself. The only
way that you and I are going to be able to come to God is
if He does that. Notice in verse 5, Behold thou
shalt call. Behold, that's a word that expresses
amazement. I'm amazed that the Lord would
call me. I'm amazed that the God of glory
would stoop down from his lofty heights and be pleased to speak
to sinners like you and like me. Behold, what an amazing thing
it is. It ought to capture our attention
and thrill our hearts that God would be pleased to show such
mercy and such grace on a nation that he did not know. Now, that's
a reference to the Gentiles. The Lord had made himself known
to Israel through the prophets by his word. The scripture says,
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto
our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, the express image of his glory. And that's
the point. That's the prophecy here. Behold,
thou shalt call a nation that thou did not know. Now, it wasn't
that God was not aware of our existence. He didn't know us
savingly. There wasn't an intimate fellowship
with God. There wasn't a hope of salvation
with God. We were without God and ignorant
of God in this world. And that's what the Lord is saying
here. Behold, people who were ignorant,
people who were without God, people who had no hope of knowing
God, people who were fallen and separated from God. A nation
that God had not previously shown any interest in, now He's going
to call them. He's going to call them effectually.
He's going to draw them to Himself. He's going to reveal Himself
to them. Notice what He says, a nation
that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee. We come into this world at enmity
with God. You ever wondered why you have
to force a child to say thank you? You have to teach them. And then oftentimes they are
forced and indignantly they will finally say thank you. Why? Because they're not thankful.
They're not grateful. They have to be taught to be
grateful. We come into this world with
an attitude of entitlement and expectation, and the Lord has to break us of that
spirit, doesn't he? A nation that knew not thee shall
run unto thee because of the Lord our God. That's the only reason we're
going to run. We by nature will run from God. We by nature will
run to everything else that the world has to offer. We will not
run to God unless he makes us come to him. Notice in verse four, we looked
at this Wednesday night, behold, I have given him for a witness. That's a reference clearly to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oftentimes when we think of witnessing,
we think of the privilege and opportunities that the Lord gives
us to be a witness, but here the Lord Jesus Christ is referred
to as God's witness. He's the one who came with the
truth. He told Pilate, when Pilate asked
him, art thou a king? And the Lord said, my kingdom
is not of this world. For this cause was I born. For
this reason came I into the world that I might give testimony to
the truth. They that are of the truth, they
hear my voice and they follow me. The Lord has to irresistibly,
effectually call us by His grace. There are two calls spoken of
in the scriptures. There's the outward call. That's
the call of nature. Man, Romans chapter 1, looks
at nature and he can come to no other conclusion but that
there is a God. conscience, God has put it into
the heart of every man a knowledge of himself in that they know
that there is a God with whom they must do. That's the cause
of all the world religions. Men are trying to relate to this
God that they imagine to exist. The one who does exist is completely
different than the one they've imagined. The Lord said, you
thought that I was altogether as thyself. You fashioned me
into the image of a man. Um, and that's all nature and
all conscience and all the voice of a man will do. Um, it might, if, if all we hear
is the outward call, the outward call of nature, the outward call
of conscience, the outward call of the voice of a man. If that's
all we ever hear, we will die in our sins. Now, the outward
call can have an effect on a person. The outward call can make a person
very religious. The outward call can force a
reformation of behavior in a person's life. The outward call can give
a person some knowledge. But the outward call cannot save. It cannot save. That can only
happen when the Spirit of God speaks to the heart and draws
us irresistibly to Christ, causes us to come, makes us to rely
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he's saying here.
You remember the story of Mephibosheth? In 2 Samuel chapter 9, David
gets his commanders together and he asks them a question.
He said, Is there anyone left from the house of Saul that I
might show them kindness for Jonathan's sake? And David here is a picture of
God. Jonathan is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And David saying, is there anyone
left of the house of Saul? Saul's a picture of, of, of,
of the lost world. That's, that's the nation that,
that, that didn't know God, didn't seek after God. That's me and
you. Is there anyone, this is a prophecy, this is a gospel
message, isn't it? Is there anyone left from the
house of Saul that I might show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now, David's relationship with
Jonathan was very special, wasn't it? And Ziba said, he said, well,
he said, Jonathan had a son. His name is Mephibosheth. and
he lives in Mature and Mature translated means sold in the
land of Lodabar the place where there is no bread and that's
where we are we've been sold into sin we have no bread to
eat and unless the Lord sends his servant with an irresistible
call he said go David told Ziba, he said, go fetch him, go fetch
him. Mephibosheth was crippled in
both of his feet as a result of a fall that took place when
he was a baby. Now there's a picture of our
not able to stand in the presence of the king. And David commanded him, he said,
go get him, go down to nature. Go down to the land of Lodabar,
get Mephibosheth, bring him to me." And he did. When David saw Mephibosheth,
you know he saw the image of Mephibosheth's father. Oftentimes,
children bear the resemblance of their parents, don't they?
And David saw Mephibosheth and he said, oh, Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. Come here and sit at the king's
table. Hide those crippled legs underneath
my tablecloth and I'm gonna feed you with the king's fare all
the days of your life. And what did Mephibosheth say?
Why would the king have anything to do with such a dead dog as
I? Now there's a picture of the
call, isn't it? There's a picture of the call. We're hiding out. We've been sold into sin. We
live in a place where there is no bread. And unless God sends
His Spirit for Jonathan's sake, for Christ's sake, to fetch those
that He can show kindness toward and sit them down at His table,
we won't come. We won't come. Don't you know
that when Ziba first got to Lodabar and then walked into nature and
said uh... i'm here to get my favorite ship
to take him back to king david i mean the practice was to kill
all the descendants of the previous rain reigning king in fear that
they might try to overthrow your your your throne your kingdom
so much of a ship thought well the gigs up i'm i'm i've been
discovered and uh... this all over now king's will
kill me will kill me no he's not uh... for the ship will save
you He's gonna show abundant mercy and kindness towards you. Same picture with blind Bartimaeus,
isn't it? He was, the Lord had put it into
his heart to cry, son of David, son of David, have mercy upon
me. He just kept crying, didn't he? Bartimaeus, be of good cheer. The Master calleth thee. He's
called you effectually. He put it in your heart to cry
out after Him. Look at verse 6. Seek ye the
Lord while He may be found. Seek Him while He may be found. This is His call. You say, well,
what's my warrant for coming? His command to come. Seek Him
with all of your heart right now. Just like you are. What's that hymn we sing? Oh,
pass me not, oh gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by or don't pass me by. Show me your mercy. Show me your
grace. Call me unto thyself. Let this
precious promise be effectual for me. Show this sinner grace. Show me abundant pardon. Look at the last part of verse
7. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him and our God for he will abundantly
pardon. He delights in showing mercy.
It glorifies him. to save a sinner. He gets no glory in saving someone
who makes a contribution to their salvation. He's glorified when
he gets all the glory for having done all the work. So here's our hope. The outward
call will never change a man's heart, may change his appearances,
Man looks at the outward appearance, God's looking at the heart. What
is this promise? I will take out that heart of
stone and put in a heart of flesh. No longer will a man have to
say to his brother, know the Lord, know the Lord, for they
shall all know me, from the least of them, even to the greatest. Lord, I want to know you. If
I'm going to know you, you're going to have to call me. You
have to come get me. You will have to robe me all
I've got. I don't have anything more than
blind Bartimaeus had. You're going to have to put your
righteousness on me. Look at verse 5 again. Behold,
thou shalt call a nation that thou knewest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
our God." You see, this isn't a, well, you know, I think I'll
try Jesus or I'll, you know, I'll give God a place in my life. No, this is running unto Him. This is casting your soul on
the throne of grace, trusting Him for all the hope of your
justification before God. Lord, give me Christ, lest I
die. I've got to have the Lord Jesus
Christ. You've got to call me. You've got to open up my eyes.
You've got to unstop my ears. And this call is continual, isn't
it? If it's an effectual call, it
won't ever stop. He'll just keep calling. You
keep returning us unto Himself. Notice the last part of verse 5. Not only do we come
because of the Lord our God, The Lord our God is the one who
according to His own will and purpose sovereignly chose a people
before time ever began. That's the only reason we're
called. The call comes as a result of the election, doesn't it?
Romans chapter 8 makes that clear. Turn with me there. Verse 29. for whom He did for know. Now don't misunderstand that. God is not looking down through
the corridors of time and seeing who He's going to choose, see
who's going to choose Him and therefore chooses them. That
doesn't even make sense if you think about it. That's nonsense.
No, He knew them. He chose them. He elected them
according to His own purpose and grace. He foreknew them in
the covenant of grace before time ever began. And all those
for whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate. I have people say, well, do you
believe in predestination? Of course I do. I say, well,
what does predestinate mean? It means that it's destined before.
That's all it means. It's pretty simple, isn't it? He did predestinate to do what? To be conformed to the image
of His Son. God's elect have always been
viewed by God in Christ. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
they are conformed to His image so that as He is, so are we right
now in this world. The only way God can have anything
to do with us is to find us in Christ what Paul say all that
I might know him be found in him not having my own righteousness
which is of the law but that righteousness which is by the
faith of the Lord Jesus Christ there's our hope God's making
it clear I predestined you I called you. Look at what he foreknew
us, he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now that's a reference
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Christ
lived, all those that God predestined in Christ lived that life in
him. When Christ died, all those for
whom He died died in Him. That's why Paul was able to say,
I am crucified with Christ, with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me. His death is our death. His life
is our life. His resurrection is our resurrection. When He was raised from the dead,
all those for whom He lived and died were raised with Him. When
we're baptized, what are we confessing? We're confessing our union with
Christ. We're saying that Christ's life
is my life. I was buried with Christ. I was
raised with Christ. Christ is my life. And all that he did predestinate,
them he also called. Not a single one that God foreknew,
not a single one that God predestinated is going to miss the call. He's going to call them effectually
by the sound of the gospel. He's going to call them out of
darkness into his marvelous light. He's going to bring them to himself,
every single one of them. I'll not lose one of my sheep.
The preaching of the gospel is the outward means by which the
Lord makes effectual the inward call. And all that He called, them
He also justified. You know what that word means? It means that before God, I've
never sinned. Not a single time. That's the only hope we have.
You see, if we're in Christ, we're without sin. There is now,
therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. If we're found in Him, we're
without sin. We stand perfect before God in the person of our
substitute. justified. In all them that he
justified, he glorified. And I want you to take notice
of the verb tense. Now you know what glorified means.
It means to go to heaven. It means to go to heaven. And God said it's already done. It's already done. All that he foreknew, he did
predestinate. All that he predestinated, he
called. All that he called, he justified. All that he justified,
he glorified. It's already done. It's finished. The work of redemption is accomplished. When God calls us by His Spirit,
He gives us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for
all the hope of our salvation. So how do I know if I've been
called effectually? Well, let's go back to our text. Behold, thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee because of the Lord thy God, because He elected you,
because He predestinated you, because He foreknew you, because
He sent His Spirit to effectually call you, and because He justified
you through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who was
offered up for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the evidence that we have. It's the positive
proof that God is satisfied. You remember when the Pharisees
asked the Lord to show them a sign? Show us a sign and we'll believe
on you. What did the Lord say? a wicked and perverse generation
seeketh after a sign. No sign will be shown unto you
except for the sign of Jonah. That's the only sign I'm going
to show you. The sign of Jonah who spent three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale and then was miraculously brought
forth. That story of Jonah is a picture of Christ, isn't it?
We're the mariners who are going to die in the storm of judgment. Lest our Jonah be cast into the
sea and swallowed by the great whale and then brought forth
miraculously on dry land. There's the proof. The resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ is God saying, I could not hold my Holy
One in corruption. I was obligated because of His
perfect obedience to me. I was obligated because of His
successful work of redemption to raise Him from the dead. The
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every time Paul went
somewhere and preached the gospel, they would listen until he got
to the resurrection. And then they mocked. What do
we find today? We find, in our culture at least,
a lot of people who would say they believe in the historical
event of the resurrection, oh, they'll gather for Easter services,
won't they? They'll say, oh, we believe in
a resurrected Jesus, and they'll go around and shake each other's
hand and pat each other on the back and say things like, he
is risen. And when you tell them what the resurrection means,
they mock. They mock. They think that because
they believe in a historical event that that makes them believers. Only when God reveals to your
heart through the effectual call what the resurrection really
means, not that it happened, but why it happened, why God
did it. will you run? Run to Him. And who do you run to? Look at
the rest of verse 5. And they will run not only because
of the work that God has performed, but they will run for the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel. Why will they run to
Him? Because they've been made to
know that God demands holiness and they have none. God requires you to be perfectly
holy. His eyes are too pure, Habakkuk
says, to look upon iniquity. He can have nothing to do with
me and you unless he makes us holy. unless he puts us in Christ. When the effectual call comes
by the Spirit of God, I come to realize I've got no holiness. No holiness. My best efforts
are altogether vanity. My holiness is something only
God has. You hear people talking about,
well that's a holy man. No he's not. You know, because he lives an
ascetic life or because he's, you know, got some... he's a
holy man. What are God's people called
in the Scriptures? Saints. You know what that word means?
Holy. Holy. Perfect in the sight of God.
Set apart. You'll run to the Holy One of
Israel only when you realize that God requires holiness and
you've got none. You've got none. They will run for the Holy One
of Israel for He hath glorified thee. Oh, I wish I could spend
more time on this last part. He hath glorified thee. All the attributes of God, His
holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His love,
are glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ and most especially at
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to know God? The disciples
asked the Lord, Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us.
We just want to know God. And what did the Lord say? Philip, have I been with you
so long that you don't know that if you've seen me, you've seen
the Father for I am the Father of one? I want to close with this statement
and I hope you'll think about it. Some people say, well, you know,
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important thing that
ever happened in the world. The Latin word for cross is the
word crux, and we often say, well, that's the crux of the
matter. And, you know, history pivots at the birth of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We've got B.C. and A.D. And,
uh, and people look at that cross as if it was the most important
thing that ever took place in the history of the world. And
I want to say to you as true as that is, it's not enough. The truth is that the world exists
for the cross. You see, the cross was before
creation. Everything that God is doing
in this world is for the cross. The cross is not for man. Man's
for the cross. You see, the glory of God is
what everything is all about. And God is glorified, that's
what the scripture says, for he hath glorified thee. Father, I have glorified thee
on the earth. Now I pray that you would glorify
me and I might be taken back to that place where I was. Everything exists for the cross. The cross is not just the crux
of the matter. It's not just the turning point
in human history. The cross is the reason for human
history. The cross is the reason for the
world. The cross is the reason for all
men to be here. The cross is the purpose of everything. It's the purpose of everything.
Let me show you that. Turn with me to Romans chapter
1 verse 20. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Everything in the world points
to the glory of God. The glory of God has its pinnacle
moment at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness
of God is seen in what God had to do to put away our sin. The justice of God, the love
of God, the holiness of God, every attribute of God is seen
at the cross. And God is saying all the invisible
things of God's glory are are pointed to by creation. And then turn with me to Romans chapter 9 verse 21. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel of honor and
one of dishonor? Now, what God's saying is that
he's the potter, all of humanity is a lump of clay, and the potter
has the sovereign right to take from that lump and make some
vessels of honor and some of dishonor according to his own
will and purpose. Verse 22, what if God willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with
much long suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted or made for destruction. And that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
a four prepared unto glory. Now what God's saying is that
all men, Christ is not for man, man is for Christ. Creation,
God's not here to hold create, God, the creation's here for
Him. It's all for His glory. And people
say, well, you know, and I know painful things happen in people's
lives and sometimes the first thought that comes to mind is
why, why God? Why God? Well, I can answer that
question with scripture. Only God can make it a comfort
to your heart. It would be cold and callous
if I said to you in the midst of some of your greatest trials,
well, you know, all things work together for good. But if God speaks it to your
heart, you know That all things work together for good for them
that love God and those that are the called according to His
purpose. It's all for His glory. Every
bit of it. All right, let's take a break. th th