We're going to open the service
with hymn number 70. Bert's going to lead us in that
in just a moment and your great hymns of the faith. Holy, holy,
holy. And I was just thinking about.
When King Uzziah died. He became proud. And he thought
that he could approach God without a priest. that God would accept him without
a priest. And because of that, the Lord
afflicted him with leprosy and he died shamefully as a leper.
He was the king of Israel. And in the year that King Uzziah
died, the prophet of Israel feared that the Lord would Depart from
Israel he feared that The Lord would leave them to themselves
And so he went to the temple Seek the Lord's face And he said
in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and
lifted up The seraphim you remember were hovering over the throne
of God three of them and Each of them had six wings. With two,
they covered their eyes. His holiness was so glorious.
With two, they covered their feet. They were creatures in
his sight. They were angels, but they were
created. And with two, they did fly. And
would they cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, heaven
and earth. is filled with your glory. The reason for everything is
the glory of God. And God is most glorified at
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you'll open your hymnals to
number 70, Bert's going to come now and lead us in that hymn. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Abim and Seraphim falling down
before thee, which were, and are, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
? Holy, holy, merciful and mighty
? ? God in three persons, blessed Trinity ? Y'all be seated. Robert usually does our scripture
reading on the first Sunday of the month. He's home taking care
of Deanna. They were hoping to be here today. She's going to need a few more
days. She's recovering well. Surgery went as was planned,
so we're thankful for that. Turn with me in your Bibles to
Psalm 50. Psalm 50. The mighty God, even the Lord,
hath spoken. He's spoken in His Word. He's spoken by His Son. Lord, speak to me. Speak to me. and called the earth from the
rising of the sun and to the going down thereof out of Zion. Now Zion's the church and so
here's God's promise out of his church where his elect to gather
together and worship in spirit and in truth. If there's not
truth, then God's not in it. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. So the Zion is called the perfection
of beauty. How can she be? He makes us comely,
the scripture says, with his comeliness, with his beauty and
his strength. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silent. A fire shall devour before him
and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. Our God has
come and the fire of God's wrath has fallen, and it was very tempestuous. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
as the sacrifice on that altar, consumed the fire and quenched
it. There's no more wrath, no more
judgment. He shall call to the heavens
from above. Think about that with me. He's
calling to the heavens from above. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
suspended between heaven and earth on the cross crying out
to the Father. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. It is finished. He's calling
to the heavens from above the earth. And to the earth that
he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto
me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. and the
heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Selah. Hear, O my people, and
I will speak. O Israel, and I will testify
against thee. I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before
me. I will take no bullock out of
thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of
the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know
all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the fields
are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world
is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?" Your sacrifices aren't What gives
you fellowship with God? Whatever they are, they're not. Offer unto God thanksgiving. That's what we've come to do
this morning, to offer unto God, not our sacrifices, the sacrifices
of praise. The calves of our lips is what
the scripture refers to them as Thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord,
for your work of redemption. Offer unto God Thanksgiving and
pay thy vows unto the most high. Call upon me in the day of trouble
and I will deliver thee. And thou shalt glorify me. Are you in trouble? Are you? God's made you a sinner. You got a problem you can't fix,
don't you? You're always in need of a savior. Oh, Lord, save us. Let's pray together. Our merciful
heavenly father, What you have called us to do,
you must enable us to do. To offer unto you thanksgiving,
praise, unfeigned worship. Worship that is done in the power
of your spirit and according to the truth of thy word. Lord,
we're dependent upon you to make us worshipers. Now we pray that
in this hour, you'd be pleased to do that. Pray that you would
speak. Pray that you would give us ears
to hear. Pray that you, Lord, would save us for Christ's sake. We ask it in his name. Amen. This next hand will just remain
seated. Would you take your blue handmails, turn to number 258.
258. Our only standing before a holy
God is to be found in Him. 258, He hideth my soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. ? Hideth my soul in the cleft of
the rock ? ? As shadows of dry grass he leans ? He hideth my
heart in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His
hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Saviour He, Jesus
my Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I
shall not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love that covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings, O
many crowns, and filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness,
transported I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with His
hand. Will you open your Bibles with me
again to Isaiah chapter 55 and also By way of introduction, I want
to look at a verse or two in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I've titled this message, A Promise
to Pardon. A Promise to Pardon. So the question
that you and I have to ask ourselves, are we in need of being pardoned? Are we in need of forgiveness?
Does the promise that God makes to pardon us of our sin mean
anything to us? Is it the hope of our salvation? God makes a precious promise
to pardon the sins of His people. put them away so that there is
now no condemnation. The law has been silenced. God
satisfied. The blood of his dear son has
been shed. It has covered the sins of his
people. So how do I know it's for me?
How do I know that I've been a recipient and a benefactor
of this precious promise? Well, I think the Lord will answer
that for us here in verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. This gospel in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 is called the Ministry of Reconciliation. You see, that's
our problem, that we need to be reconciled to our God. In another place, Isaiah said
it like this. He said, your sins have separated
you from your God. Those sins have to be put away.
God's justice has to be met. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, And we'll begin reading at verse
18, all things are of God. Of God, for God, to God, all
things are of God. All things, no exception. Things in heaven, things on the
earth, things under the earth, all things are for Him. Psalm 115, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us. This is not about you. It's not
about me. It's not about us. It's about
Him. It's about Him. that the Lord
gives us grace to seek Him with all of our hearts and realize and discover that this
is about Him. All things are of God, who hath,
past tense, reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has
given us the ministry of reconciliation. So we've been called to preach
the gospel and to call men, be ye reconciled to God. You've suffered a fall. God leaves
you in your sins. You'll be separated from him
for all eternity. We need reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself. When the Lord Jesus Christ shed
his precious blood on Calvary's cross, God said, I see the blood. I see the travail of his soul
and I'm satisfied. And I pass by those for whom
that blood was shed. God was in Christ. Christ is God. Hugo re-read that in the study
this morning. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God and the Word was God. John chapter 1. Light came into the world and
darkness comprehended it not. Darkness never comprehends light.
God has to shine the light of the gospel in the irresistible
call of grace, regenerating us and revealing to us the glory
of Christ. How do I know if He's done that?
Because He's put it in my heart to seek Him. To seek Him. Reconciling the world unto Himself,
not imputing, not charging them with their trespasses. Satisfied
completely with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he said,
it is finished, it was finished. Everything God requires of a
sinner, he looks to Christ for. Now, I can find a lot of hope
there. Reconciling the world to himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them and has committed unto
us the word of reconciliation. Come to Christ. It's the word
of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors. An ambassador can do nothing
but tell men what whoever sent him told him to say. Ambassadors have very little
leeway. When they're asked a question
when they're in a foreign country and they're asked a question
that they don't know the answer, they've got to go back and get
the answer from the from the president or the king that sent
them, don't they? Now we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he, God the father, hath
made him, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin for us. Why does God not
impute to us our trespasses? Because He's already imputed
them to Christ. He charged Christ with them. Christ paid the full
debt of all of our sins. For He hath made Him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. in him, perfectly righteous in
the sight of God. That's the double blessing. In
Isaiah chapter 40, when the Lord said, Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people, tell them that warfare is accomplished. Tell them they've
received of the Lord's hand double for their sin. The double blessing
is the removal of guilt and the imputation of righteousness.
God didn't just take away our sins, He gave us a holy nature. God made Him who knew no sin,
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that's reconciliation. And
it's the only means of reconciliation that there is. You're not going
to be reconciled to God by any other means, not by anything. That's why in our text, let's
go back to Isaiah 55. That's why in our text the Lord
said, forsake your thoughts. What are man's thoughts? Well,
I can be reconciled to God by a decision I make or by a good
life that I live or by some knowledge that I attain. I can do something
to reconcile myself to God. No, God's the one offended by
our sin. You don't offend someone and
then tell them, well, you know, I'm going to give you permission
to forgive me. No, it's the one that's been offended that has
the right not only to forgive, but set down the conditions for
that forgiveness. And that's what God has done. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. He has given us the ministry
of reconciliation. And so we beseech men, be reconciled
to God. God's way. God's way. My ways are not your ways. My
thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are high above
the earth, so are my ways. Look, go back with me to Isaiah
chapter 55, Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. I mentioned blind Bartimaeus
in the first hour this morning. He lived in Jericho and he heard. So all he could do was hear. He couldn't see, but he could
hear. He heard that Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of David, The Messiah was coming by, and he thought,
this is my only chance. I'll not be able to follow Him
as a blind man. I'll not be able to find Him
again. I hear the crowd. I hear the footsteps. I know
He's close. I'm just going to cry with all of my heart. And
that's what he did. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy
upon me. Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found. Don't presume. that you're gonna
have another opportunity. Now is the accepted time. Now
is the day of salvation. I want you to do something for
me right now. Right this minute I want you to do something tomorrow. You can't do it, can you? You
just can't do it. Nothing's ever been done tomorrow.
Tomorrow never comes, does it? There's always a tomorrow, isn't
there? Yet men will put off the salvation
of their souls for another day, presuming that God is going to
have grace upon them again. If God has spoken, God has said,
come, come in your heart, come right now just like you are. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, call ye upon him while he is near. He's near right now. The Lord said in Romans chapter
10, say not in your heart. In other words, don't even think
it. Perish the thought. What can I do to bring Christ
down from above? and perish the thought, what
can I do to bring Christ up from beneath? In other words, what
can I do to make Christ come to me? What can I do to make
His death effectual for me? What can I do to make what Jesus
did work for me? Perish the thought, don't even
think it. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
worked. He finished the work. And then
in that passage it says, Oh no, He is as near unto you as your
lips, your mouth. Your mouth. And that's what He's
saying. Ask Him. Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy upon me. This
is not a one-time experience, is it? It's what sinners are
constantly doing. I don't know if I was saved yesterday,
but I'm crying out for Him to save me today." You can't live
off yesterday's manna, can you? You really can't. We try. We
try. I think, boy, that was just a
wonderful experience the Lord gave me. You try to live off
of it and it's going to get full of worms. Lord, give us this
day our daily bread, to whom coming, we're always coming to
Christ. That's why we preach the same
message to believers and unbelievers. Same message. I get accused sometimes,
well, you need to preach to unbelievers or you preach to unbelievers
all the time, you need to preach to believers. It's the same message. There's no difference. It's come. Come to Christ just like you
are. He delights in showing mercy.
He abundantly pardons. You see, that's our problem,
isn't it? Our problem is not really our circumstances. As
difficult as they might be, Our problem is believing God in the
midst of our circumstances, and that is the reason for our sin. You see, the sin that doth so
easily beset every one of us. You know, Hebrews talks about
the sin that easily besets us. And some people think, well,
I thought for years in religion, well, you've got one sin that
easily besets you, I've got another sin that easily besets me, and
everybody's got their own weaknesses and their own problems. No. Unbelief is the sin that doth
so easily beset us. And the believers always cry,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. But the fact that I'm
not able to believe God, whatever is not of faith is sin. There's
our problem, isn't it? Our problem is not our circumstances,
however difficult they might be. Our problem is believing
God in the midst of our circumstances. And the reason we don't believe
as we ought is because of sin. Lord, there's my problem. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. Don't think, well, my problems
are worse than other people's problems. Everybody's got their
own set of circumstances, don't they? There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to all men. But God is faithful. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you are able." Now, people stop right
there and they say, well, God's not going to put more on me than
I can bear. That's not what that verse says. If God never puts
more on you than you can bear, you'll never need him. And if
he ever puts your sin on you, you'll know you've got a burden
you can't bear. So what does he say? God is faithful,
and I'll suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able,
but will with the temptation, with the circumstances, with
the trial, with the difficulty, provide the way of escape that
you might be able to bear it. Christ is the way of escape.
He's the way of escape. And so we're always coming to
look to Christ, come to Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
rest your soul in circumstances in Christ. He is able to save
to the uttermost and to provide for us everything that we need
in life and in eternity. He's able. He's able. And there's our problem, isn't
it? We just lose sight of Him, don't
we? call you upon him while he is
near. He said, you suppose there's
two or three of us here that are worshiping him in spirit
and in truth right now? I know there is. I know there
is. So what did the Lord say? Where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. He's here right now. And so He
says, while He's near. So I'm calling on you. I know
it's just an outward call. I know it's just an audible call,
but it's the means by which the Lord makes the effectual call. Irresistible, isn't it? And so we call on Him to come. The prophets of God have always
done that. Seek ye the Lord. Don't seek
a change in your circumstances. Don't seek better life. Seek
Him. Seek Him. He's the one that's
ordained your circumstances to be exactly like they are. To
make you seek Him. Lord, I'm so full of unbelief.
Help thou mine unbelief. So on the authority of God's
word, I say to you and to myself right now, seek ye the Lord while
he may be found right now while he's near in your heart. Come to Christ without moving
a muscle. Believe on him. 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 to our God for he will abundantly
pardon." Return. Now that's true for every person.
Every person. This is a call for every man
to come back. Come back. Now I'm not much on conspiracy
theories. I mentioned this recently. Number
one, I don't think men are smart enough. And number two, because
they can't take into consideration all the unintended consequences.
You look at some of the decisions that were made by world leaders
in years gone by, they had no idea what was going to happen.
They're doing the best they can do, but that's just about what
it is, isn't it? Number two, they're not powerful
enough. And number three, they're not able to keep a secret, okay? You want to keep a secret and
you tell one person, you better kill that person because the
secret is going to get out. Isn't that the way? Conspiracy theories just defy
all logic as far as man's power and man's knowledge and man's
ability to keep ages. Now that having been said, there
is a conspiracy that started in the garden. and it has deceived? You see, because the source behind
this conspiracy is not man, it's Satan. It's Satan. And God has given him the power
to deceive the world. The Lord says, forsake your ways. What is the way of man that is
not God's way? Look at the next verse. I'm going
to answer this question in just a moment. for my thoughts, verse
8, are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord." What is man's way? 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 says, Because man has no love for the truth, Christ
is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life. And because
men have no love for Christ, God has sent them a strong delusion
that they should believe the lie. What is the lie? What is the conspiracy? What
is it that all men believe that's contrary to what God has said?
Well, it goes all the way back to the garden. It goes all the
way back to what Satan did in the garden when he said to Eve,
God knows in the day in which you eat of that fruit, your eyes
are going to be open and you're going to be like God knowing
good and evil. Right now, you're just puppets. Right now, you're just blindly
following after God. You've got no free will. You're doing everything God says
to do without thinking about it. And God knows in the day in which
you eat of this fruit, your eyes are going to be open and you're
going to have free will. You're going to be able to discern
the right from the bad and then you'll make right choices and
then you'll be virtuous. That was the temptation. Eve
thought, when she saw that the fruit was good to the taste and
pleasing to the eye and able to make one wise, she took it
and she did eat it and she gave it to Adam and Adam ate it. And
the conspiracy hasn't changed. However long we've been here,
the conspiracy is the same today as it was all the way back there
in the garden. It hasn't changed. Men believe that they have the
power of free will to determine the destiny of their own soul. They believe that. They really
do believe it. They believe that they can obligate
God with a decision that they make, a prayer that they pray,
a work that they perform. They believe in free will. A man has a will. No question. You know you've got a will, don't
you? The problem is it's not free. It's bound to our nature. God's the only one that can set
us free. And what does he say? Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to free will. Don't
go back to the law. Don't go back to works. God says, forsake your ways.
My ways are not your ways. The only way you're going to
come is if I give you the new birth. Is if I open the eyes of your
understanding and unstop your ears and take out your heart
of stone and put in a heart of flesh. I've got to do the work. And I'm going to do it all. Forsake
your ways. What is the way of the world?
Well, John summarizes it in 1 John when he says, all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. That's the world. That's not
God's way, that's man's way. Everything man does is motivated
by the lust of his flesh, that's pleasure. It's motivated by the
desire to be seen of other men. That's the lust of the eyes.
I'm lusting after your eyes to look on me. That's popularity. Lust of the flesh, lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life. That's power. I want power over
my circumstances. I want power over God. I'm going
to do what I want to do when I want to do it, and I'll have
control. And that goes all the way back
to the garden too, doesn't it? When Eve saw that the fruit was
good to the taste, that's pleasure. Pleasing to the eyes, that's
popularity. And able to make one wise, that's
power. That's the way of man. That's
the way of the world. And it's the cause of all our
problems, isn't it? When Christ is the pleasure of the Lord,
He's the one that we want to be seen in good light with, isn't
He? If God before me, who can be
against me? Though the whole world turn against
me, if I'm in good graces with Him, if He sees me, and He's the one that's got the
power, isn't He? And so when our Lord began His public ministry,
what did He do? He publicly was baptized to fulfill
all righteousness. That's what he told John. Suffer
to be so that we might fulfill all righteousness. It's not your
baptism that saves, it's his baptism. When we baptize, when
we submit to baptism, we're identifying with him, but we're looking to
his baptism for our salvation. And then he came forth out of
the water, and immediately he was driven into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil for 40 days. And what happened in
the wilderness at the end of that time? At the end of 40 days,
weak, hungry, the devil came to him, didn't he? If thou be
the Son of God, turn those stones into bread. I know you're hungry.
I know you want to gratify your flesh. And what did the Lord
say? Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Now
I'm not going to be tempted by that. Well, let me take you up on the
pinnacle of the temple and you can cast yourself down into the
Kidron Valley and all the people down there will see that you
are the son of God because because the angels are going to catch
you, and you'll not dash your foot against a stone. And what
did the Lord say? Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. I'm not tempted. I'm not tempted
to have the pleasure of men. I'm
here to please God. And so they took him up on a
high mountain and showed him all the nations of the world. And
Satan said, bow down and worship me, and I'll give you these.
You'll have power over these. Worship as it is written, worship
the Lord thy God and him only thou shall thy serve. Depart
from me. You see what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished in that, in those temptations was what you and
I have never been able to do. We're still struggling with the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,
aren't we? That's our problem. The Lord
Jesus Christ was never gratified His flesh outside of the will
of God. He never sought the approval
of men outside of the will of God. He never, ever took power
away from God. He always glorified His Father
and He laid down His life willingly for His sheep, didn't He? Now who do you want God to look
to? For you. That's why he said, return unto
me. You see the truth is that all
men need to return. Why is it that all men know that
there is a God? Because there was a time for
all men When in the loins of their father, Abraham, Adam,
I'm sorry, they walked with God. There was a time before the fall
when every person had fellowship with God. So the Lord's calling to the
world, return to me. You fell in your father, Adam. You lost fellowship with me. You chose the lust of the flesh,
the pride of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life. You chose pleasure, popularity,
and power over my word. But I've sent a savior. Return. return unto me. Forsake your evil ways. Forsake your free will gospel. Forsake your works mentality. And look to the Lord Jesus Christ
for all the hope of your salvation. Look to Him and live. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. There
is a way that seems right unto man, But in the end, that way
leads to death. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh, as the
rain cometh. When was the last time any man
had anything to do with when it rained, where it rained, or
how much it rained? Never. Never. And so the Lord is using this
power outside of the control of man to illustrate salvation.
And he says, he says, for as the rain cometh down and the
snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the
earth and maketh it to bring forth bud that it may give seed
to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word that
be at the goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall
prosper in the thing wherein I sent it." What a glorious promise. The
word of God is like the rain. You can't control it. You can't
figure out how much of it you're going to get or when it's going
to come or where it's going to come. The Lord controls it. Now what does that do to a believer? What does that truth do? Does
it cause you to say, well, you know what? I'll just go home
and sit on my hands and wait for God to do something. You know what this glorious truth
will do? for one of God's elect, cause them to seek Him with all
their hearts." Lord, you've got to have mercy on me. Prayer is
nothing more than the expression of a mercy beggar. It's the expression
of one who's completely dependent upon the one to whom he's praying
for all blessings. Lord, you're going to have to
send the rain. You're going to have to speak to my heart. You're
going to have to open the windows of heaven. I believe that your
word will not return unto you void. It will accomplish the
purpose for which you sent it. It will prosper. It will prosper. Lord, make it to prosper in my
heart and save me. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the Word of God. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of Truth. Lord, make Your Word living and
effectual in my heart. Cause it to be a double-edged
sword. Cut away my evil thoughts and give to me hope in Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the incarnate word of God, returned back to heaven,
he did not go back empty-handed. Oh, no. He prospered in what
God had sent him to do. He went back with the names of
those for whom he lived and died, and he presents them right now,
right now before the throne of God as our intercessor. He's a prosperous Savior. For you shall go out with joy. Rejoice in the Lord always. Always. Lord, do you know what
I'm going through? Of course I know what you're
going through. I'm putting you through it. Rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, I say rejoice. Let
your gentleness be known unto all men. The Lord's at hand.
The Lord's at hand. For you shall go out with joy
and be led with peace. That's what I need. I need peace. I need peace with God. I need
to know that all things are well between me and him. That's what he said. You go out
with peace. The mountains and the hills shall clap forth before
you into singing. And what are those mountains?
Those are the obstacles, aren't they? If you had faith as a grain
of a mustard seed and set into this mountain, be you removed
and cast into the sea, it'd be thrown into the sea. And the
highest mountain, the highest mountain on earth, Everest, you
put it into the depths of the ocean and it's going to disappear.
You know what the tallest mountain in the world is from its base? Hawaii. Hawaii, a whole lot taller
than Mount Everest. So you take all the mountains,
all the things that would separate us from God and throw them into
the ocean and they would disappear. God
says, I've cast your sins into the depths of the sea. I remember
them no more. Now I can have peace with God
if he's buried my sins and forgot them, separated them from me. The mountain shall break forth
unto singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands." These are the trees of righteousness, which are the
plantings of the Lord. Look what he says. Instead of
the thorn, what happened in the garden as a result of the fall? You're going to labor by the
sweat of your brow, and it's not going to produce anything
but thorns and thistles. And that's what religion is.
Religion is man trying to earn favor with God and not being
able to produce anything fruitful. Thorns and thistles is the only
thing that comes forth. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. It shall not be cut off. I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. This is a promise to pardon. Forgiveness of sin. Peace with
God. Everything here is for that purpose. All of creation. Everything that
happens in Providence and every man, every woman, every child
that's ever been fashioned by the hand of God exists for His
glory. What? What hope? What peace? Our merciful Heavenly Father, We know that what you have called
us to do, you must enable us to do. So we ask that your Holy
Spirit now would make us willing in the day of thy power. We pray
it in Christ's name. Amen. We're going to celebrate
the Lord's table, so I'll ask the men if they'll come forward.
Bert, you're going to lead us. Number 17 in the spiral hymnal,
number 17. Yeah. ? See the table spread before you
? See the feast of bread and wine ? These are symbols of our
Savior ? Tokens of his love divine ? Bread that's broken is his
body Crushed beneath the wrath of God, wine poured out is a
reminder of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. Jesus came, God incarnate, to
fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us ne'er forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us home to glory. Praise his name. With this hope and expectation,
we rejoice to keep this feast. Celebrating our redemption, of
healing on Jesus' breast. John said there's three in heaven
that bear witness to the gospel. And that's the Father, the Word,
and the Spirit. And then he went on to say, and
there's three on the earth that bear witness to the same gospel. And that's the Spirit, takes
the Spirit of God to preach the gospel, takes the Spirit of God
to hear the gospel. The water, that's our union with
Christ in baptism. and the blood. That's the Lord's
table. When I see the blood, it all
points back to that precious blood of Christ that was shed
on Calvary's cross. You see, the testimony is simple.
Christ is the testimony. He is the witness. God has given
him to the people as a witness. And his witness is his life.
symbolized in this unleavened bread. God made him who knew
no sin, sin. As often as you do this, do it
in remembrance of me. out the shedding of blood there's
no remission of sin. God had slain a lamb in the garden,
didn't he? Clothed Adam and Eve with proper
clothing. Men are still trying to cover
themselves up with fig leaves, aren't they? Only that spotless fleece, robe
of righteousness from the Lamb of God who was outspot and without
wrinkle will be sufficient His blood had to be shed. The Lord
said, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. David, would you dismiss us in
prayer, please? Thank you. I pray that as we go out to the
ball this week that you would be with us and watch over us.