Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 42 from the Gospel Hymn Spiral hymn book.
Number 42, let us praise the name of Jesus. And I think we've
said it before, but the second to last line in the first verse,
if you have a pencil between his and people, just pencil in
chosen there, the word chosen. Bye! ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Prophet, priest and sovereign king ? ? To him render adoration
? ? Laud and homage to him bring ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? God incarnate from above Came to save his chosen people
Sent by God in covenant love ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Who upon Mount Calvary ? ? Shed his blood and sealed our pardon
? ? Died from sin to set us free ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? Risen, conquering, gracious friend, Advocate and mediator,
All our hopes on Him defend. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
for he brought us to his fold. Come, exalt his name and worship,
may the Savior be extolled. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
Jesus, till we see Him face to face. Then throughout the endless
ages, praise Him for His love and grace. Please be seated. Will you open your Bible with
me to Jeremiah chapter 9, Jeremiah 9. for our call to worship. Jeremiah chapter 9, and we'll
begin reading in verse 22. How many times we see in God's
word, thus saith the Lord. Speak, speak, thus saith the
Lord. Even the carcasses of men shall
fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the
harvest man, and none shall gather them. The Lord's talking about
the final judgment. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. Let
him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. In these things I delight. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which
are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Those that are trusting in something
they've done in their flesh for the hope of their salvation,
the Lord says judgment will come against all of them. Egypt and
Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all that
are in the utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness for all
these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are
uncircumcised in the heart. If the Lord's given us any understanding
at all, we are crying from our hearts right now. Lord, circumcise
my heart. Do a work of grace in my heart.
Reveal Christ to me. Redeem me from the wrath that
is to come. I want us to, first of all, I
understand Jimmy Ray is very sick. He's got bad flu. So pray for Jimmy Ray. And David
is leaving, as you all know, tomorrow for three weeks on a
very special trip. And I want to pray as a church
for his safety. So let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, oh, how we do pray that as we read of your loving kindness,
of your judgment, Lord of your righteousness, we pray that you
would do a work of grace in our hearts, a work that only you
can do. Circumcising our hearts, cutting
away the hope that we would have in the flesh and causing us to
have no confidence in the flesh, but to trust in Christ for all
of our salvation. how we pray that you'd be pleased
tonight to bless your word, your gospel, and cause us, Lord, to
leave this place with hope of our salvation. We do pray for
Jimmy Ray and we ask, Lord, that your hand of strength will be
upon him and we pray that you would speak peace to his heart
as he suffers with this illness. And Father, we're so thankful
for David and how we do pray that you would give him safe
travels and pray, Lord, that you would cause him to always
remember your presence and Lord, give him the opportunity to see
your hand at work in this trip. Bring him home to us safely,
we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 326 from the hardback hymnal. More about Jesus would I know,
more of His grace to others show, more of His saving fullness see,
more of His love who died for me, more more about Jesus, more,
more about Jesus, more of His saving fullness see, more of
His love who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn,
more of his holy will discern. Spirit of God my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me, more, more. More about Jesus, more, more
about Jesus, more of His saving fullness see, more of His love
who died for me. More about Jesus in his word. Holding communion with my Lord. Hearing his voice in every line. Making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus on his throne,
riches and glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase,
more of his coming Prince of Peace. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 47. Isaiah 47. In this chapter of God's Word,
much is said about the judgment that God will execute against
Babylon in the end. We never read of the judgments
of God against the unbeliever without compassion and gratitude. I've titled this message, and
compassion. We're thankful that the Lord
himself has made us to differ. That what we have we received
by his free grace. That what we deserve and where
we would be but for the grace of God is right smack dab in
the middle of Babylon. And so when we read of these
judgments, as we know, the Lord's not making threats to Babylon. All of God's Word is spoken to
God's people. We're the only ones that are
going to believe it. This is not God shaking His fist at the
world, warning them of the judgment that is to come. They don't think
about that. They don't believe it. The natural
man doesn't believe that God's holy and that he's gonna execute
his judgment against them. He believes that somehow that
he's earned favor with God, that God's some sort of doting grandfather
that's gonna pass over his sins and receive him. The scriptures
are written to God's people. And the threats, and they're
not idle, Adam and I were talking last night about parenting and
how sometimes parents fail in not following through with the
threats that they make against their children or to their children. And it doesn't take long for
kids to figure out that, you know, it's just words. Nothing's
going to happen. And they just go right about doing what they're
going to do. God's people know that every
word of God's Word is going to be fulfilled. And so when we
read of these threatenings, when we read of these judgments that
God will execute in the day of judgment against the unbeliever,
we're humbled to cry for mercy, We're humbled to express our
gratitude to God for delivering us. And we are genuinely brokenhearted
and compassionate. We don't preach fire and brimstone
to the world with some sort of delight. The Lord delights in
mercy, and we hope for the Lord to be merciful to those who who
we know and talk to and those who would be the objects of God's
judgment. Gratitude and compassion. The Lord speaking to us. Isaiah
chapter 47 is very is very similar to Revelation chapter 17 and
18. Remember Revelation chapter 17,
the Lord speaks of that mystery Babylon the great, the mother
of all harlots. And then in chapter 18 he speaks
of the judgment against Babylon when he says Babylon the great
has fallen and has become the habitation of devils and all
the nations have drunk the wine of her fornication and then the
next verse says Come out of her my people Come out of her that
ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues. For her sins, her sins have reached
into the heavens, and God remembers her iniquities." So, these judgments
that the Lord declares to be are for us. They're for us. They're not idle
threats to a disobedient child. God's name is speaking to them.
He's speaking to us and he's, he's, he's causing us to, to,
to want to come out and he's causing us to, to be burdened
for those who have not come out. Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you've
not received? And if you received it, then
why do you boast as if you had not received it? There's no boasting. There's no boasting in the gospel.
Uh, we're, we're not, we're not standing, pointing our finger
at an unbelieving Babylonian world and saying, you know, we're
not like you. No, there's no boasting in the
gospel. Uh, we're, we're grateful that
the Lord has revealed himself. We're grateful that he's given
us ears to hear of his judgments and, uh, and we're, and we're
brokenhearted for those who have not yet heard. Before we read Isaiah chapter
47, turn with me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
chapter 10. You remember in Hebrews chapter 4,
the Lord says that the gospel was preached unto them just like
it was preached to us, speaking of those Old Testament Jews,
but it was not mixed with faith, and so it did not profit them.
It didn't benefit them in any way. And so the judgments of
God are executed against those who do not believe the gospel.
And the Lord is admonishing us to believe him. to enter into
our rest, to know that the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. That's all in Hebrews chapter
4. That Christ is our rest, that He's done the work of redemption,
and that we're to rest the hope of our salvation on His finished
work. And then in Hebrews chapter 10,
He says in verse 21, we have a high priest over the house
of God. Our forerunner, the Lord Jesus
Christ has gone in before us and he intercedes on our behalf.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Oh, to be washed with the water
of God's Word, to believe every word that God speaks, and to
have our conscience purged. We have reason to feel guilty
all the time, don't we? And yet we have the hope of knowing. that we have an advocate, we
have a priest, we have one who has put away our sin, and we're
able to have... The only way you can have a clear
conscience before God is to not have any sin. And that's how
we come, isn't it? The Lord tells us, come before
the throne of grace with boldness. Let us hold fast our profession
of our faith, verse 23, without wavering. Why? Because He is
faithful but promised. Here's our hope. The Lord God
Himself is faithful to all of His promises, to the judgment
that He executed against our substitute on Calvary's cross. He's faithful to His promise.
He actually put away our sin. He actually separated them from
us as far as the east is from the west. He actually remembers
them no more. He's faithful to His promise.
We're reminded often in our conscience and by the accuser of the brethren
of the shame and guilt of our own sin, aren't we? And here's
our hope that the Lord uses that shame, uses that guilt to drive
us back to Christ. that we find our hope in him. Let us consider one another,
verse 24, to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day
approaching. He's talking about those who
have fallen away from the gospel, those who have gone back and
forsaken the gospel. And then he says, for if we sin
willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Every sin that you and
I have ever committed is a willful sin. So what's he talking about
here? He's talking about hearing the
gospel, acknowledging the gospel, confessing faith in the gospel,
and then leaving the gospel and going back to a works gospel,
a free will gospel. And he goes on to describe it. Look what he says. But a certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall
devour the adversaries. It shall. He that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. of how
much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy,
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and counted the blood
of the covenant, whereby he was sanctified." He said he was sanctified.
an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And
again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of an angry God." Oh, Lord, don't keep me. Keep
me. To have heard the gospel and
believed the gospel and departed from the gospel is the greatest
sin. Lord, I need Your grace more
now than ever before. I need You to keep me. I don't
want to know anything about the judgment of God. In my experience,
I want to know all about what Christ did to satisfy the demands
of God's justice. I don't want to be a part of
that at all. All right, go back with me to Isaiah chapter 47. Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground. There is no
throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called
tender and delicate." Now this is the pride of the Babylonian
who who's got their comforts in this world and have no interest
in the things of the gospel. And the Lord's now executing
judgment against them. Take the millstone and grind
meal, uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh,
pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. thy nakedness shall be uncovered,
yea, thy shame shall be seen, I will take vengeance, and I
will not meet thee as a man." I don't know what to think about
that. I mean, I don't know what to say about that. Except that This judgment that's
going to come against the unbeliever is not going to be executed by
a man. It's going to be the full fury
of God's wrath. And the Lord's revealing to us
what He's done. He's already uncovered our nakedness.
Isn't that what He did for our father Adam in the garden? He
uncovered his nakedness. And what God covers, no man can
uncover. And what he uncovers, no man
can cover. And so here the Lord uncovers our nakedness and clothes
us in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's speaking
of these Babylonians now who don't want any part of that.
And he said, when I come in judgment against you, I'm not going to
come like a man. We read of the Lord Jesus Christ coming as a
conquering Savior, riding upon a horse with eyes of fire and
tongues of sword, devouring His enemies. Lord, thank You. Thank You for redeeming me. Look at verse 4. As for our Redeemer,
we have a Redeemer. Now to redeem something is to
buy back something that was lost or forfeited. That's what redemption
is. It's to buy something back. When
the trumpet of the year of jubilee was blown, all the property went
back to its original owners. All the slaves were let go and
all the debt was turned free. When Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi. You remember what Naomi said
to Ruth? She said, you sit right there
at his feet for the man will not rest until he finishes the
work. Boaz didn't finish. I mean he
didn't rest until he finished the work did he had to go reckon
with the law and he did that and he purchased Ruth and Naomi
to himself he redeemed back what she had lost from when her husband
took her to Moab and That's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done for us for us. He's our kinsman Redeemer he
has bought back that which we lost in our father Adam and Otherwise,
we'd be just like the Babylonians. And so the contrast here is,
I'm going to come and I'm going to execute my judgment against
all unbelievers. And then the prophet says, but
our Redeemer, He's the Holy One of Israel. He's the one who has
successfully bought us back. We weren't bought with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with incorruptible, even
with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
price that the Lord paid in order to purchase us. And so he says,
as for our Redeemer, Any time there's an hour, there's a day.
And so what the Lord's doing is He's setting in contrast us
to them. And He's saying, as for our Redeemer,
the Lord of hosts is His name. Oh, why do the heathen rage?
Why? Why do the men of this world
and the kings of the earth imagine a vain thing? Men raise their
fist against God. We'll not have that man reign
over us. I find it somewhat humorous to hear these political dissidents
that are complaining against our current administration, getting
in rallies and crying, he's not our president, he's not my president. Well, unless you renounce your
citizenship and move from this country, yes, he is your president,
whether you like it or not. And that's exactly what men say
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not my Lord. Yes, He is.
And you can't renounce your citizenship from Him. You can't move away
from Him. He reigns sovereign over the
armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. And
no man can say unto him, what doest thou? And no man can stay
his hand. He is Lord. He's Lord over the
living and he's Lord over the dead. This is our Redeemer's
name, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. Religious people
talk. Yeah, you know, what's more foolish?
What's more foolish than the than the irreligious? Who would
have no shame in in? Renouncing the Lord Jesus Christ
as their Lord is the religious who make him Lord You can't renounce him as Lord
and you can't make him Lord God's already done it and And God's people just bow. As
for our Redeemer, He's the Lord of hosts. He is Lord. The Holy One of Israel. He's
all my righteousness before God. He's the Holy One. He's sanctified. He's perfect. He satisfied all
the demands of God's law. We've not been able to, you know,
religiously, I think I mentioned Sunday about, you know, going
out here and jumping up and trying to touch the moon. You know,
that's the way it is keeping the law, you know. And in religion,
the one who can jump a little bit higher than the other one
prides himself and think, well, I got closer to the law than
you did. How foolish. How foolish. The Lord Jesus Christ
reached past the moon. He reached right into heaven. And He satisfied God's law. He's the Holy One of Israel. He's our Redeemer. And the only
reason that we're not going to meet the wrath of God in the
Day of Judgment is because we've been bought with a price and
we have a holy advocate who intercedes on our behalf. We have a righteousness
before God that's completely outside of us. Otherwise, we're
just like everybody else. We're just like everybody else. Verse 5, Sit thou silent, and
get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt
no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms. Here's the unbeliever
priding himself in the position that he has with God and in this
world. He's made a covenant with death,
with hell he's in agreement. God says, I'm going to disannul
your covenant. These are the promises that man
has made and he's hoping in his own promises for his salvation.
In verse six, I was wroth with my people. I have polluted mine
inheritance and given them into thine hand. Thou did show them
no mercy upon the ancient house. Thou very heavily laid thy yoke. So now the Lord speaking to Babylon
is I sent my people to you. I put them under the yoke of
the Babylon Babylonians, but you didn't treat them right.
You know, in Revelation chapter 19, when the Lord comes in his
judgment, he talks about avenging the blood of his servants. And
he said to Abraham, I will bless
them who bless you, and I will curse them who curse you. And
that's what the Lord's saying here. You touch one of my children,
There's going to be special judgments coming against you for that. Verse 7, And thou saidst, I shall be a
lady forever, so that thou didst not lay these things to thine
heart, neither didst thou remember the latter end of it. You did
not consider the judgment that's going to come. You didn't believe
me. You acted as if you wanted to
live forever. Lord, I would do that. I would
do that. If you didn't cause me to think
on thee, if you didn't give me a fear of God and enable me to
trust Christ, I'd be just like everybody else. Denying death
right to the end therefore You know that verse 7 you the Lord
said you did not lay these things to heart. You didn't believe
you were gonna die I Can't tell you how encouraged
I am When I talk to somebody who tells me I think about death
all the time. I think about heaven. I think
about hell That that's not natural Normal people don't do that. God's got to put that on your
heart. Most folks just keep living their lives as if they're going
to just live forever. Verse 8, Therefore hear now this,
thou that art given to pleasures. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, They were damned because they
believed not the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, I know there's people who
are indulging their flesh in all the pleasures of this world
and have no interest in the gospel because they know that, you know,
my life's going to have to be changed. But taking pleasure in unrighteousness
is not just indulging yourself in the pleasures of this world.
It's pleasuring yourself in your righteousness. And so he says,
here's what he's, we don't take any pleasure in our righteousness. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. We take no pleasure, we don't
boast ourselves in what we've done. We look to Christ alone
for all of our righteousness and all of our salvation. Therefore
hear now this, thou that are given to pleasures, that dwellest
carelessly, that sayeth in thine heart, I am and none else beside
me. I shall not sit as a widow, neither
shall I know the loss of children. I'm good. God's going to bless me. Everything's
going to be fine. Why? Because I've made Him Lord. But these two things shall come
to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood,
they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude
of thy sorceries and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. The Lord's calling those Babylonian
soothsayers, sorcerers. And that's what they are. They call themselves servants
of God, but they're preaching lies. And they're leading people to trust in themselves. That's
why he said that. I am. I got it. I've done this. Verse 10, for thou hast trusted
in thy wickedness. He's not saying you went out
and did shameful things and you're putting your trust in that. He's
saying you're trusting in your good deeds. You're trusting in
your free will. And I'm calling it wickedness. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. We don't trust in our good works
for the hope of our salvation. Thou hast said, none seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge,
it hath perverted thee. And thou hast said in thine heart,
I am and none else beside me. Knowledge puffeth up. Here's
a description of the person who has spent all their lives studying
the Bible. reading all the Puritans and
knowing church history, and they're just, that's their righteousness.
That's their righteousness. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge,
it hath perverted thee. That's just your understanding,
your knowledge. Therefore, verse 11, shall evil
come upon thee, and thou shalt not know from whence it rises,
and mischief shall fall upon thee, and thou shalt not be able
to put it off, and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly,
which thou shalt not know. Oh, Lord, keep me from that. Keep me looking to Christ. You see the same fiery wrath
of God's judgment that's coming against the unbelieving world
is what fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're either going
to be judged in Christ or we're going to be judged in our sins.
These things are written to us. to cause us to look to Christ
for the hope of satisfying God's wrath. Stand now with thine enchantments
and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast
labored from thy youth, if so be thou shalt be able to profit,
if so be thou mayest prevail. I was talking to somebody Sunday
who didn't grow up in religion. They grew up under the gospel.
And they could not believe how zealous religious people were.
to perform their good works and how competitive they were in
trying to prove their salvation over someone else. I mean, you
know, they just, they'll spend all their time and all their
money and all their energy just getting involved in religious
activities. And the Lord says, you think
these things are going to profit you, but they're not going to
prevail. They're not going to prevail.
I'm pleased with my son. Look to him. Put all the hope
of your salvation in his glorious person and in his finished work. Everything else is Babylonian. It's all soothsaying, it's all
sorcery, it's all enchantment. Thou art, verse 13, thou art
wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers
and stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from these
things that shall come upon thee. Let your false prophets see what
they can do to protect you from me. They can't. I'm the only
one that can protect you from me. I'm the only one that can
do it. Your knowledge can't do it. Your
works can't do it. Your free will can't do it. Your
prophets can't do it. Your religion can't do it. I'm
the only one that can save you from me. Isn't that glorious? But man looks everywhere else. Behold, they shall be as stubble. The fire shall burn them. They
shall not devour them. They shall not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame. This is God speaking. Who's he
speaking to? Is he speaking to those who are
going to experience this? If he is, they're not hearing
it. They don't care. He's speaking to us. Lord, I
don't want anything to do with that. Let the fire of your wrath fall
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all my justification before you. The Lord's speaking to those
who believe His Word. God's not trying to get people
to hear Him. He's not going around, you know, crying in the streets
and begging the Babylonians to hearken unto his voice. He's
speaking to Israel. Yes, these threats are not idle. Yes, they will be carried out.
Yes, they are against Babylon. But they're being spoken to Babylon
for our hearing. You ever do that? You ever speak
to one person, you're not really speaking to them, you're speaking
to this other person over here, you just want them to hear you?
That's exactly what God's doing. The person he's speaking to is
not hearing them. There shall not be a coal to
warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee,
with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants from thy youth. They shall wonder every one in
his quarter, and none, none shall save thee. There's only one Savior. There's only one able to deliver
me and you from the wrath of God. That's what Christ came
to do. He came to quench the fiery wrath
of God's justice. Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace to find mercy, help in our time of need that we might
escape Those Israelites didn't, they didn't believe God. The
Babylonians sure didn't believe Him. Do we believe Him? The gospel has been preached
unto us. If it's mixed with faith, that's
a God-given gift and will be delivered, will be delivered
by the grace of God from the wrath that is to come. This is
God's Word. You know it is, don't you? You
know there's going to come a day when the fiery wrath of God's
justice is going to fall on this world. Oh Lord, make me grateful
and make me compassionate. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you have spoken with such power and such clarity in your
word, and oh, how we pray that your Holy Spirit would give to
us the faith to believe every word you've spoken and to cast
our care upon the one who careth for us and the only one who's
able to save us. Lord, we pray that you would
put in our hearts a spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude, knowing
that we're deserving of everything that comes against Babylon. And
Lord, that as we have opportunity, we pray, Lord, that you would
cause our hearts to be burdened for the lost condition. of the people that we live with. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 125. Let's stand together. Number
125. StSq3 3.30 (-0.99)" I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
in Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt this heart
of stone Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, whereby
thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments white in the blood
of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before thy throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Thank you.