Well, good evening. Let's open
up tonight's service to hardback hymnal number 13. Number 13,
praise ye the Lord, the almighty. Number 13, if you could please
stand. Praise ye the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation! O my soul, praise Him, for He
is Thine! glad adoration praise ye the
lord who are all things one Sorry, it's the box. We'll sing, let's start number
two again. Praise ye the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously
reigneth, shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth. Hath thou not seen How thy desire
e'er had been Granted in what He ordained. Praise ye the Lord, who with
marvelous wisdom hath made thee, deck thee with health, and with
loving hand, guide it and stay thee. How often, grieved, Hath
not he brought thee relief, Spreading his wings for to shake thee? Praise ye the Lord, O let all
that is in me adore Him. All that hath life and breath,
come now with praises before Him. ? Let the amen sound from
his people again ? ? Gladly for we adore him ? May be seated
please. I like singing acapella, don't
you? Let's open our Bibles together to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah chapter 52 for our scripture
reading. And we want to welcome Angie
and Jonathan here with us tonight. It's a real treat to have you
all here. Isaiah 52. This is our call to
worship. Awake, awake. Put on thy strength. What is
your strength? Who is your strength? His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. Putting on his strength is looking
to Christ. Oh, Zion, put on thy beautiful
garments, the robe of thy righteousness in Christ. Oh, Jerusalem, the
holy city from whence come forth there shall no more come unto
thee, the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the
dust, arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands
of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion, for thus saith the Lord,
you have sold yourself for naught, and you shall be redeemed without
money. I want us to pray for Tim Murray's
having surgery tomorrow up in New Jersey. I think he's going
up there. And I was telling Brian that
there's a brother in Pennsylvania. His name is Rob Hicks. Rob's
57 years old and owns a fire sprinkler company. And Rob had
a bout with cancer a couple years ago, and he did okay after some
treatments. Well, it's come back, and it's
in his stomach and lymph nodes. And I spoke to him yesterday,
told him that we would be praying for for Rob and Lisa and their
three children. So, let's, Carl Bourne is doing
some better. Talked to Ivalu and he's on a
walker as of today and starting to move around a little bit.
So, that's good. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, you've called
on your people in your word to awake. Lord, we are so prone
to slumber. We're so prone to be spiritually
dull and hard of hearing. Lord, if we're to be awakened,
you're going to have to do it. And we ask that you would. We
ask that you would send your spirit now in power to turn our
attention to Christ, to cause us, Lord, to look to him, to
find our hope and our salvation, all our comfort, all our joy
in his glorious person, his accomplished work of redemption. Lord, might
you lift him up and draw us to him. We thank you for the progress
that you're giving Carl and we ask that you would continue to
bless Carl and Ivalu and the Bourne family with thy presence
and with thy power. We pray for Tim and ask Lord
that you would give the doctor's skill tomorrow and that the surgery
would be successful and that you would recover his health.
We thank you for the testimony that you have given to Rob, and
we ask, Lord, that you would bless him with thy presence and
thy power as he waits on you. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 318, we're just going
to go acapella for fear of that music box malfunctioning again. Number 318, I need thee every
hour, if you could please stand. Number 318. ? I need thee every hour ? Most
gracious Lord ? No tender voice like thine ? Can peace afford
? I need thee, oh I need thee ? Every hour I need thee O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour,
stay Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power,
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide or life
is vain. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. ? I need Thee every hour ? Most
holy one ? O make me Thine indeed ? Thou blessed Son ? I need Thee,
O I need Thee You may be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 51? Isaiah 51. I love to sing that hymn in worship. There's not an hour in your week,
and I know there's not one in my week, that we need the Lord
more than this hour. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear are from the Lord. If we're going to see him, if
we're going to hear his voice, we need him. We need him to bless
us with his grace. If we're gonna worship him in
spirit, we're gonna have to have his spirit. And if we're gonna
worship him in truth, then he's gonna have to reveal to us the
truth of the gospel, completely dependent upon him. not anything
we do that we're more dependent upon the Lord for than to worship. I've titled this message, Remember
Where He Found You. Notice in our text, look Unto
the rock Isaiah chapter 51 verse 1 look unto the rock from which
you are hewn and to the hole of the pit from Which you are
digged Look to that mountain of sin
and that quarry that that God went to and cut you out of and
the darkness of that place where you were, unable to see the truth,
unable to believe the gospel, unable to know God. the coldness of your heart, the
indifference that you had toward the gospel. The Lord's telling
us to remember where you came from. Remember where He found
you. And the hole of the pit from
which you were digged, that's a clay pit. Now in the previous
chapter, the Lord says, is my hand short that I cannot save?
The Lord reached into the miry pit of clay and took out from
the same lump of clay some to make a vessel of honor. and fashioned it in his own hand. He's the potter, and we're the
clay, and he has the sovereign right to make out of the same
lump of clay some vessels of honor and some of dishonor. No
man can stay his hand and say, what have you done? He is absolutely
sovereign in salvation, remember. Remember where you came from
and remember who came and got you Remember the rock that's
not a reference to Christ That's a reference to the deadness of
your spiritual condition Before the Lord came and hewed you out
of that mountain Remember the pit That you were in you just
like them no different Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have
that you have not received?" Believers don't look at unbelievers
with contempt. We don't look at unbelievers
regardless of what their lives might look like. We don't look
down our self-righteous nose at them and think, well, glad
I'm not like that. No. No, we know. The rock from which you were
hewned. Look. Look back. Now, most of the time
we are paralyzed by looking back to our past, aren't we? We look
back at some sin that we committed. We look back to some good thing
that we did. We live in the past too much. The Lord's telling us to look
back. There are things that he commands us to remember. But
you remember what the Apostle Paul said when he said, this
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press
toward the prize. The mark for the prize of the
high calling, pressing toward Christ, not looking back. The
Lord said, I've forgiven you. I remember your sins no more. Why do we live in the memory
of past sins? The Lord said, put that away. That's been put away. It's been
covered by the blood of Christ. It's been separated from you
as far as the east is from the west. And then we live in memory
of our successes or some good thing that's happened or some
experience. People live in the memory of
a religious experience. Well, I remember, I remember
when I got saved. I remember, I remember the feeling,
I remember the experience. Those feelings and those experiences
are very untrustworthy. They're very unreliable. Feelings
come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. They're deceiving. My only warrant is the word of
God. None else is worth believing. We can't live in the past experiences
of whatever they might have been. You see, the thing about salvation
is that it's a moment by moment, current experience of grace. You remember when the children
of Israel were given manna from heaven every day? And the Lord
makes this analogy when he tells us how to pray. He said, pray
to the Father that he give you your daily bread. I am that manna which came down
from heaven. So we're to come to Christ, Paul
Peter said, to whom coming, we're to feed on him every day. What happened to the children
of Israel when they tried to keep the manna from yesterday
over to another day? They didn't believe God was gonna
send manna again. So they living off of yesterday's
manna and when they went to get it, it was full of worms. And
that's exact, the best religious experience that you had yesterday
will not feed your soul today. The best experience you've had.
The most real experience you had. I'm not talking about some
spurious experience of feelings. I'm talking about a true experience
of grace that you had with God. That was for then. You can't
live off of that today. You've got to come to Christ
again, don't you? Don't you? And so the Lord says, forget
those things which are behind. Press towards the prize for the
mark of the high calling. Now the one thing I want to remember,
the first time the word remember is used in the scriptures is
in Genesis chapter 5 when God's talking to Noah and he says to
him, when I see the bow, Will remember the covenant that I
made with you and Then in the next verse he calls it an everlasting
covenant. I Take great hope and comfort
in knowing that when I forget the Lord doesn't He established
an eternal covenant of grace whereby he call he chose a particular
people The Lord Jesus Christ redeemed those whom God chose. He said, I'll remember the covenant. Every time I see the bow in the
sky, I'm going to remember the covenant. And I've shared this
with you all before. You've flown before and looked
down at a cloud and seen a rainbow? In the cloud? It's a circle,
isn't it? It's not we you see standing
here on the earth. We only see part of the rainbow,
don't we? But from heaven you look down and it's a complete
circle The Lord says I see the whole thing I see the whole covenant
you see it in part I see it in full You you look in part You
look through a glass dimly Paul said then We'll see him as he is, face
to face, and be made like him. So, faith is trusting that the
Lord's seeing the rest of that rainbow, isn't he? That he sees
the whole covenant. I will remember the covenant
that I made with you. It's a covenant of grace. It's
a covenant whereby God the Father made a promise to give to his
son a bride. God the Son entered into that
covenant promise with the Father, this before Adam was ever created.
And the Lord Jesus Christ promised to be the surety for his bride,
the redemption of his bride. And the scripture refers to Christ
as the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
Before the world was ever created, God Almighty slew the Lord Jesus
Christ in that covenant. And God's never seen any of his
children outside of Christ. Now in time, the Lord Jesus Christ
had to shed his precious blood in order to fully ratify all
the conditions of that covenant. But that covenant was just as
surely ratified before time ever began. What God determines to
be, shall be. And the Lord said, I'm going
to remember that. There's our hope, isn't it? The
hope of my salvation is that God remembers that covenant. God the Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant with the Father and with the Son and promised
to make those whom God chose, those for whom Christ died, willing
in the day of his power. And through the preaching of
the gospel, God's elect are given ears to hear, they're given eyes
to see, and they come trusting Christ alone for all their salvation. The Lord says, I remember, I
remember. So there's some things that we
ought to remember. Remember that you were in bondage in Egypt
and that I brought you out. Remember this day, which you
came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And how did
the Lord bring the children of Israel out of the house of bondage?
What means did he use to deliver his people out of Egypt? Egypt's
a picture of our and not just a picture of our sin. It's a
picture of the bondage of our sin It's a picture of the bondage
of religion It's a picture of all the bondage that man brings
on himself because of his rebellion against God And what did the
Lord do? the Lord sent a deaf angel didn't
he killed the firstborn of every household in Egypt and protected
his people how with the blood of the lamb. And God said to
Moses, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. And so it was
through that shed blood of that lamb, the lamb that is without
spot, without blemish, the Lord Jesus Christ is that lamb of
God. They were to roast it whole. Every part of that lamb was to
be consumed that night whatever they didn't eat. They were to
burn with fire What a picture of the Lamb of God as he hung
on Calvary's cross and the fiery wrath of God That's the means
by which God brings his people out of Egypt Christ is that means
And Christ is that a Crisis seen in Moses Now I will send a prophet
like unto him. I So Moses brought the children
of Israel, everything in their deliverance pointed to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only reason why we are brought out of Egypt. Remember,
remember this day how I delivered you from the bondage of Egypt
through the shed blood of the Passover lamb. through the dividing of the Red
Sea, through the bread that came miraculously from heaven, and
the water that came from the rock, all these things, the Lord
Jesus Christ was that rock that followed them through the wilderness,
and it was the rod of Moses that smote that rock, as the rod of
God's law smote the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross for
the purpose of paying the ransom price, the penalty for all the
sins of all of God's people. Remember that. Remember what
I've done for you. Remember where I brought you
from. Remember the rock from which you were hewn and how you
were hewn out of that rock. Remember the pit from which you
were digged and whose hand it was and not just his hand. Now these were From what I've been able to understand,
these clay pits where they would get the raw materials to make
ceramics and pottery, where they would send the slaves into the,
because you couldn't get in one of those pits without getting,
you know, mired down in the mud and the muck in order to get
the clay out and bring it out to where it could be fired and
produced. The Lord didn't just reach down
into the pit, He came in the pit. He came in the pit. God made him who knew no sin,
sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ entered
into the pit of our sin. And he says to us here, remember,
remember where you came from and remember who came and got
you. Remember the rock from which you were hewn. You'd still be
under the load of that mountain that you were in before I came
and got you out. You'd still be in the miry clay
of that pit had I not come in and got you out Now look what
he says in verse 2 look on to Abraham Let's let's look at There's a there's a couple of
more verses I wanted us to consider when it comes to remembering
and In Revelation chapter 2, the Lord speaking to the church
at Ephesus says to them, I have somewhat against you because
you have forsaken your first love. You're not living off of Christ
daily. You're relying upon some past
experience. And and then the Lord says, remember. Therefore, from whence thou art
fallen, remember. Remember that that that love
that we have for Christ and come come to him Come to him and then
in Ephesians chapter 2 turn with me there if you will Ephesians
chapter 2 Look at verse 11 Wherefore, remember that you
being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by which that by them which are called the circumcision in the
flesh made by hands. God's not concerned with anything
made by man's hands. Nothing. He's not impressed with
anything that's made by man's hands. The circumcision that
you and I have to have before God is the circumcision of the
heart. And that's a work of grace. That's
something that only the Holy Spirit can do when He gives you
faith to look to Christ That's the circumcision of the heart.
That at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise
having no hope and without God in this world. Do you remember
that? Do you remember when the gospel
was of no interest to you? Do you remember when you just
went on like everybody else? being religious, being worldly,
being whatever we were, but we had no hope. We didn't know God. We knew the God of this world. We knew the God of our own flesh. We knew ourselves as God, for
we had set ourselves up on the throne of God, hadn't we? Made
God subject to us. How did we do it? Here's what
we said. God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
wants everybody to be saved. Man's got a free will. That's what we did. We made ourselves out to be God.
We set ourselves up on the throne of God. Believing that God was
somehow contingent, somehow dependent upon us for us to give him permission
to save us. Oh, how blasphemous! How idolatrous
we were! And the Lord's saying, remember
that. Remember where you came from. Remember what I brought
you out of. Go back with me to our text.
The rock from which you were hewn, dark, cold, and lifeless." Lifeless. We had no life in our hearts.
We had no knowledge of God. We had no fellowship with the
true Spirit of God. We were pretenders. That's all
we were doing. Going around trying to impress
other men with our religiosity. And the Lord says, remember.
Remember how dark that was. Remember how cold it was. Remember
how lifeless it was. I came and I hewed you out. I
could have left you in that quarry with the rest of those rocks.
But I didn't. Why? Because I remembered the
covenant that I made to redeem you. I'm not going to leave one
rock behind. Not one. Every pebble is going to be redeemed. Every one is going to be brought
out of that mountain. Remember the pit from which you
were digged. That slimy, miry, filthy pit
of sin, and God Himself came in as the potter and got out
that miry clay, and then He fashioned it with His own hands, and then
He fired it. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. When the fiery wrath of God fell
on the Lord Jesus Christ, it fell on everyone for whom He
died. And the consuming fire of God's
wrath took that miry clay, that muddy mess, and fashioned it
into a beautiful piece of ceramic, pottery, a piece for God's glory,
a vessel of honor. Who did it? Who did it? Why is it important
for us to look back? Well, first of all, it makes
one thankful to the point of worship. They've got to bow before the
One who came and got them. They've got to worship Him. They've
got to ascribe to Him all glory and all praise and all honor.
Lord, I wasn't in the pit crying out for You to come get me. I
wasn't a rock over there in the quarry for You to come get me.
You came and got me. I didn't even know I was lost.
You came and brought me out. What can I do but worship the
one who did that for me? The second thing it does, it
makes one humble. It makes one humble. He can't
take any pride in his own salvation. He can't say, well, you know,
I made a decision, or I had an experience, or I let Jesus come
into my heart. What blasphemy! What awful idolatry
for a man to speak such about God. One who remembers the rock
from which he was hewn, one who remembers the pit from which
he was digged, won't talk like that. He won't talk like that. And thirdly, remembering where
you came from and who brought you out. will make you compassionate
towards those who are still there. You won't look at anyone who's
not come out of the pit and shake your finger at them. You won't
talk down to them. You won't expose their sin as
being greater than your own. You won't do it. You'll look
at their lost condition and say, but for the grace of God, there
go I. I'd be just as lost as you had
the Lord not had mercy on me, had the Lord not saved me, had
the Lord not come and got me. Had the Lord not fulfilled his
covenant for me, I'd be right there with him. And I'd be just
as content as they are. I'd be just as religious. I'd
be just as happy. I'd be just as worldly. I'd be
trusting in my own will and my own works, just like they are,
and I wouldn't think anything of it. Who made me to differ? The Lord did. Oh God, make us
compassionate. And give us a give us a heart
for those who are still in the pit, a heart for those who are
still in the rock quarry to pray for them and to witness to them
and to plead with the Lord to bring them out. Now, look with me, if you will. at the first part of verse one,
hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that
seek the Lord. What is it to follow after righteousness? Well, the Lord answers that question
very clearly in Romans chapter nine, if you'd like to turn with
me there. Romans chapter nine. Verse 30. Let's back up to verse 28. For
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, will finish the work and cut it short
in righteousness, because a short work will the Lord make upon
the earth. A short work. Over the history of mankind,
33 years is a short time. Over the history of mankind,
3 hours is a short time. The Lord Jesus Christ hung on
Calvary's cross and was forsaken of God because of the sins of
His people. He finished a short work. He didn't say it was an
easy work. He said it was a short work,
short in time. God did it. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ gave up the ghost, he cried, it is finished. There's nothing more for you
to do. Don't try to add to what Christ has done. And don't take
anything away from what he's accomplished. The Lord concludes
his word with a warning about that, doesn't he? He says, if
any man add to the words of this book, the curses of this book
will be added unto him. And if anybody take away from
the words of this book. Now that's the work of Christ.
Then His name will be taken from the Book of Life. He won't have
any part in salvation. To take from Christ His work. I will finish the work. I'll
cut it short in righteousness. Because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah saith before, except
the Lord of Sabbath had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom
and been made like Gomorrah. We'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah
had the Lord not left us a seed. That seed is Christ. Had the Lord Jesus Christ not
come, had he not made short a work of righteousness and satisfied
the demands of God's holy law and God's justice, we'd be just
like Sodom and Gomorrah, be no different. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, now how
does our text say? Those who follow after righteousness,
who seek the Lord. Now the Gentiles who followed
not after righteousness have obtained to righteousness, even
the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law, and they
stumbled at the stumbling block, the stumbling stone. As it is
written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of
offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So the natural man goes about
Romans, the next chapter, Romans chapter 10, the natural man goes
about trying to establish his own righteousness. Why? Because
he's ignorant of the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
the Lord says, those who are trying to establish their own
righteousness by their law-keeping, by their decision-making, by
their good works, have not attained to the righteousness of God.
But the Gentiles, who were ignorant of the law, they've attained
unto righteousness. Why? Because they've looked to
Christ in faith. In faith. Abraham was justified by faith. Notice in the next verse in our
text. Turn back with me there. Look unto Abraham your father
and unto Sarah that bear you for I called him alone and blessed
him and increased him. Now there's some question about
the structure of that sentence it would be probably more accurate
to translate it for I alone called him rather than I called him
alone. Either way, but I alone called
him. Abraham was a pagan. Abraham
lived in the Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was not seeking after
God. He was living just like everybody
else was living. And God went and got him, and
fetched him, and brought him out. Is Abraham an example of great
faith because he believed God? Or was Abraham a great sinner
who had no place to turn but to the Lord? You see, I think
we get faith confused with pride when we speak of a person of
great faith as if they are strong and brave and courageous. A person of great character,
a person of great virtue, a person of great discipline. A fearless
person. That's sometimes our idea of
great faith. And we get this idea that we
want to become like that. When the truth is, that a person
of great faith is too afraid to trust anyone or anything other
than the Lord. A person of great faith has been
given the ability to see their inability. That's why Paul said, His strength
is made perfect in my weakness. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. What does God say about Abraham's
faith in Romans chapter four? Well, let's turn there. Let's
turn there. Romans chapter four. Now God had called Abraham out
of the area of the Chaldees when he was 70 years old. And now he's 100. He's waited
30 years for the Lord to fulfill the promise. Decades have passed
since Sarah went through menopause. She's not capable of having a
child, and he's not capable of fathering a child. He tried when
he was able to produce something of his own flesh, and you see
what a mess that's made in the world for the last 4,000 years,
3,500 years. It's just 4,000 actually. Where did God have to bring Abraham
before the child of promise, Isaac, could be born? He had
to bring him to the end of himself. He had to bring him to absolute,
total desperation. He had to bring him to all inability
before Abraham could believe God. Look what the scripture
says about Abraham. Verse 18 of Romans chapter 4,
who against hope believed in hope that he might become the
father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so
shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body now dead." He was unable. He didn't have any place else
to go except to the Lord. Lord, if you're going to fulfill
this promise, you're going to have to do it all by yourself. I've
tried to help out, and all I did was make a mess of things. When he was about a hundred years
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, who was ninety
at the time, he staggered not at the promises of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. Now it is not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
because of our justification." Here's the point. Faith, a person
of great faith, is a person who God has given the ability to
see their absolute inability to do anything. Abraham said,
I can't do anything. I can't father a child. She can't
bear a child. But I'm just going to believe
God because I've got nothing else I can do. I've got no place
else to go. Coming to Christ. You've heard
this before. It's so true. And it's so contrary
to everything you hear in religion. Coming to Christ is not a choice.
It's not a decision. If you have a choice to believe
on Christ or do anything else, you will do whatever else you
have an option for. Coming to Christ is when God
shuts you up to faith and you've got no place else to go. I can't
do anything. The Lord gave the disciples an
opportunity to leave when he said, will you leave me also?
And what did Peter say? Lord, where should we go? Where
are we going to go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You've shut us up
to yourself. We didn't come to you because
we had a choice. You even said, you did not choose
me, I chose you. You're the only reason we're
here. You see, faith is not some stalwart character of strength
and manliness and character and virtue. No. Lest you become, as a little
child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Suffer
the little children coming to me, for such is the kingdom of
God. What can a little child do? We're
talking about a baby, an infant. An infant. They can't do anything,
can they? They can't feed themselves, can't
dress themselves, can't walk, can't talk. Two things a baby
can do. Mess themselves up and cry. And
that's about all you and I can do before God. Mess ourselves
up and cry for help. People talk about they want to
glorify God in their lives. There's only one thing in your
life that is going to glorify God, and that's to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast all your care on Him. Put all your hope in Him. Give
up on all your free will. Give up on all your good works.
And rely upon Christ alone. That's what faith does. Faith
puts all its eggs in one basket. Faith just, faith's got no place
else to go. It's got no place else to go. And that's, God had to bring
Abraham to 100 years old and Sarah to 90 years old before
they quit trying to do it themselves. And he said, Lord, I'm dead. I can't do it. I'm going to believe God, because
I can't do anything else. I can't do anything else. Remember Abraham. Isn't that
what our text says? What do we remember about Abraham? We remember that he was shut
up. God stripped him of everything. Took away all his strength, all
his ability. Left him with nothing. And what did we just read in
Romans chapter 4? This is not just written about
Abraham. But this is written about everyone that believes
God. The righteousness of Christ is
only given to those who have been made able to see their absolute
inability to do anything for themselves, and they've got no
choice but to cast their soul on Christ. Turn back with me to our text. Remember the rock from which
you were hewn, The Lord went to that quarry.
There's still a lot of rocks there. A lot of rocks there. Fields are white under harvest. Why'd you come out? Remember the pit from which you
were digged. Why'd the Lord take your lump
of clay and make from it a vessel of honor? An earthen vessel that has the
treasure of the gospel inside of it. That's the only reason
you're a vessel of honor. Christ in you is your hope of glory. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
is in you, then you're a vessel of honor. An earthen vessel,
a clay vessel, yes. That the praise and the glory
might go to what's in the vessel. Look unto Abraham your father,
unto Sarah that bear you, for I alone, I alone called him. He wasn't looking for me. I blessed him. I increased him. Don't you love
the way the Lord talks? I did it. Abraham didn't do it. Everything
Abraham tried to do is just like everything you try to do. You
see, you're just like Abraham, aren't we? The Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places. He will make her wilderness like
Eden and her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness
shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Where is your comfort? Most folks in the world, their
comfort is nothing more than the absence of conflict. You
know, if I'm healthy, wealthy, and wise, and things are going
well, my circumstances are good, I got money in the bank, and
a roof over my head, and kids are doing all right, I'm comfortable.
I'm comfortable. But those who seek after righteousness,
those who seek the Lord, don't find any comfort in those things.
They don't find any comfort at all in those things. Thank God for them, but... And then there are those who
take false comfort, false refuge in a covenant that they have
made with God. But those who seek after righteousness,
those who seek the Lord, can't find any comfort there either.
I've made promises to God all my life. Hadn't kept one of them. If the salvation of my soul is
determined by a promise that I make, I'm in trouble. I find no comfort. Isaiah chapter
40, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Tell them this. Tell them their
warfare is accomplished. It's not a work that you make
work for you. It's accomplished. It's finished. It's over. It's done. All the sins of all of God's
people are covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the law is honored by Christ, who's seated at the right hand
of God right now, interceding on behalf of His people. It's
finished. It's finished. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. Tell them that all their iniquity
is pardoned. Not will be pardoned if they
fill in the blank, but is pardoned. Is pardoned. And Isaiah said,
Lord, I want to comfort your people. Where do I start this
message? Tell them they're grass. Tell them they're grass. Tell
them they're like the grass in the field, that it springs up
and then it's mowed down and it just goes right back to the
earth. Tell them they're just like that. That'll be a comfort to them.
Because that'll cause them not to look to themselves for any
of the hope of their salvation. They'll seek the Lord. All those who seek after righteousness,
those who seek the Lord, they're just like Abraham, they're just
like Sarah. They were hewn from a rock quarry
of humanity because God chose them. They were digged from the
pit of miry clay because the potter wanted to make a vessel
that he could put himself in. God will comfort Zion. I'm comforted
in knowing that God's not looking to me for anything. God Almighty is looking to my
substitute, my sin bearer, my savior for everything that he
requires of me. He's looking to Christ. Grace,
grace, it's free. It's free. Didn't we read that
in chapter 52? Tell them they're going to be
bought without money. Without money. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for the revelation of Your Gospel and know how we
pray for the faith to believe it. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 44. Let's stand together. We're going to sing this to the
tune of What a Friend We Have in Jesus, number 44. Precious
Savior, friend of sinners, we as such to thee draw near. Let thy spirit dwell within us. ? That love that casts out fear
? Matchless Savior, let us know Thee ? As the Lord our righteousness
? Caused 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. Thy self 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.