Ed, I know I speak for the whole
church to say to you, we're sorry for the loss of your dad. I know
it was a real sudden shock. We're praying for you. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth. For you are dead, you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, Then shall you appear with Him in
glory." In glory. Oh, might the Lord give us grace
this morning to set our affections on things
above and not on things of the earth. I know you come here with
lots of earthly problems, distractions, Might this hour be a time when
the Lord would set our focus on Christ? Tom's going to come
and lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's
stand together. Before the day star knew its
place, all planets went their round. The church and bonds of
sovereign grace was one with Jesus found. Was for His saints He tasted
death, All glory to His name. And when He yielded up His breath,
With Him His saints o'ercame. With him his members on the tree
fulfilled the law's demands. Tis I in them and they in me,
for thus the union stands. When from the tomb we see Him
rise, Triumphant o'er His foes, He bore His members to the skies,
And with Him they arose. Ye saints, this union can't dissolve,
by which all things are yours, long as eternal years revolve,
or deity endures. Please be seated. Will you open your Bible with
me to Psalm 46, please? Psalm 46. I read this psalm in
the study this morning. I was a man and so encouraged
by it, I just want to hear it again. I want to hear it again. God is our refuge. and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Are you in trouble? Any trouble that time or money
can fix is not the kind of trouble God's talking about here. Most of the troubles that occupy
our attention are troubles that are going to be fixed eventually
with time or can be fixed with money. Those really aren't troubles.
You say, well, what are you talking about? You've got a trouble that
time nor money will never solve. It's called sin. That's why we need a Savior. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though God take everything away from
me." I shared the gospel with a young
lady Wednesday. It was like the Lord was just
showing her the truth of it. She said to me, she said, I believe
what you're telling me. She said, God has stripped me
down to nothing. She said, I've lost everything. Well, she went home Wednesday
afternoon to find her house on fire. And she texted me and she said,
I'm done. I've got nothing left. I said, Tish, I said, you've
got something you didn't have yesterday, and it's worth everything. You've got the knowledge of the
gospel. Though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled, and though the mountains shake with the swelling
thereof, Selah, there is a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. She shall
not be moved. Where two or three are gathered
together, there I am in the midst of you. God shall help her. And that
right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come. Come. Behold the works of the Lord. What has he done? He's fulfilled
the law. He's established a perfect righteousness
before God for His people. He's put away the sins of His
people. Come, behold the works of the Lord. What desolations
He has made in the earth! He makes wars to cease unto the
ends of the earth. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariots in fire.
He causes those who are born at enmity with Him to put down
their weapons. Lord, I can't resist You anymore.
Can't fight You anymore. All I can do is bow and worship
You. Be still. Be still and know that
I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Flee to him. Flee to him. Oh, what a refuge he is. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very hopeful that we're going to experience the fulfillment
of this promise. Lord, that you would speak to
our hearts, that you would give us in this hour an opportunity to have the heavens
opened, that you would come down, that you would enable us to to
see the Lord Jesus Christ seated at Thy right hand, making intercession on behalf
of us, having fulfilled the law, having put away our sin. Oh,
what a Savior! Lord, we do pray again for Ed.
for the Emmerich family and ask Lord that you would use this
time of trial and trouble to speak to hearts, be merciful
and gracious to your people. And we pray for Tish and we ask
Lord that you would call her to yourself and cause her Lord
to come. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again and we'll sing hymn number 272 from the hardback temple,
the solid rock. Let's all stand. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, His blood
supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul give
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. Then he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. Please be seated. Adam Charon
is going to bring some special music now. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
Tune, come up for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon,
mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer Hither
by thy help I'm come And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God He to rescue me from danger Interposed
His precious blood O to grace, how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Find my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, Prone to leave the God I love, Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Thank you, Adam. Christ is that fountain. of every
blessing. Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46. And I want to ask you a question.
Have you seen the glory of God? Have you seen the glory of God? Isaiah chapter 46 ends with these
three words, Israel, my glory. Something about the glory of
God has to do with Israel. Now I get a publication in my
mailbox once a month, generally it goes straight from the mailbox
to the trash can, but the title of it is Israel My Glory. And the misguided authors of
this publication have interpreted all the promises of God in the
Bible to Israel relating to national Israel, that country over there
in the Middle East. And they are waiting for national
Israel to be re-established, for the temple to be rebuilt,
the sacrificial system to be re-enacted, and they believe
with all their hearts that these promises that God made to Israel
are for those Jewish people over there. It's not. The promises of God, all the
promises of God, are yea and amen in Christ. And these references to Israel
are to be understood as spiritual Israel. Romans chapter 11 says, all Israel
shall be saved. Now, if that's a promise to national
Israel, I don't know too many Jewish people that believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. So either God has not been faithful
to His promises in saving all of Israel, or it's not a reference
to national Israel, it's a reference to spiritual Israel. all those
who God has chosen in the covenant of grace and made to be, what
does Israel mean? Prince, a child of God, to as
many as He came unto His own, that's the Jews, and His own
received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave
He the power to become Israel. the children of God a prince
of the king so the Lord concludes Isaiah chapter 46 by saying that
Israel is my glory and I ask you have you seen the glory of
God Moses Heard audibly the voice
of God at the burning bush He saw a bush on Fire and not being
consumed what a picture of the cross He heard the voice of God
Speak to him and tell him to go back into to Egypt and bring
out the children of Israel He went back experience the miracle
of the ten plagues concluding with that deaf angel coming and
killing the firstborn of all the children of Egypt and preserving
the children of Israel who were where? Behind the blood. They
were behind the blood. And God passed over the houses
of Israel because of the blood of the Lamb that had been put
on the door of those homes. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. And that truth is still true now, isn't it? God says,
the death angel's coming. You know that. Death is certain. How are we going to escape it?
When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. Oh, grave, where's your
victory? There's no victory. The grave's
been conquered. Sin's been put away. Satan's
been defeated. all through the glory of God
revealed in that Passover lamb. And then Moses leads the children
of Israel out of Egypt, sees the walls of water in the Red
Sea, God brings them through, collapses the sea back on the
Egyptians, drowns the whole Egyptian army. What magnificent demonstrations
of the glory and power of God Moses experienced. And then he
gets to Sinai, and Sinai is a mountain on fire, quaking. And even before that, the people
run out of water, and God tells him, take this rod and strike
that rock, and out of that rock came enough water to supply water
for a million people. And then they were hungry and
Moses prayed and God sent manna every day. Every morning there
was manna. And after all of that, after
all of that, Moses goes up on Mount Sinai and says to God,
Lord, show me thy glory. Hey, you would think that if
any man on the face of the earth had experienced the glory of
God, Moses had, but Moses wasn't satisfied. Show me that glory. And so the Lord took Moses, hid
him in the cleft of a rock. And that's the only way you and
I are going to see the glory of God. If he puts us in Christ. Puts
us in Christ. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. That's what the scripture says.
Lord, give me the spirit of Moses. Don't let me be satisfied with
the outward manifestations of your mercy and grace that I see
in my life. I talk to people all the time,
well I know I'm a child of God because he did this for me, or
he did that for me. Don't let me be satisfied, Lord,
with just seeing your acts of providence in my life as the
hope of my salvation. I need to see your glory. I need to see your glory. Unbelievers all the time. I can't
tell you if I've talked to them. You've talked to them? They're
comforting the hope of their salvation in being able to identify
the hand of God in their life in a particular circumstance
or situation. Well, I know I'm a child of God
because he did this for me or he did that for me. It's the hand of God that's allowing
you to take your every breath. It's the hand of God that's done
everything in your life. But that's not the hope of your
salvation. The hope of your salvation is in being able to see his glory. And here's what God said to Moses
when he put him in the cleft of the rock. He said, I'm going
to cause my goodness to pass before you. You can't see my
face. No man can see my face and live,
but I'm gonna allow you to see my backside. You see, we see the glory of
God not because we're able to predict what God's gonna do in
our lives in the future. We don't know what the Lord's
gonna do. We have no idea what He's gonna do. The Lord can take
life in a moment. You know that. The glory of God
is seen when we see the backside of what the Lord has done. When
we look back 2,000 years ago, to the one who is the glory of
God hanging on Calvary's cross and satisfying all the demands
of God's divine justice to put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself, shedding his precious blood as a covering for our sins. That's the glory of God. So I
ask you a question, have you seen the glory of God? What I'm
asking you, have you seen Christ? Have you seen Christ? Has God
enabled you to set your affections on Him? To put the hope of all
of your salvation on His accomplished work and on His glorious person. Because that's what Moses saw.
That's a Moses. Moses said, Lord show me thy
glory. Israel. Israel, those whom I
have saved, my people, my children, that's where my glory is manifest. That's how it looked. Look at
the whole verse, verse 13. Well, verse 12, hearken unto
me, ye stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. That's what we are by nature.
We're far from righteousness. Far from it. Infinitely away
from it. Eternally separated from it.
We have no righteousness. And men pride themselves in thinking,
well, you know, I've done this, I've done that. I've made the
right decisions. I've done some good things. I'm
a good person. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
who are far from righteousness. That's what we are. We're just
hard-hearted, not realizing that we are ignorant. But for the
glory of God, the grace of God, we are ignorant of the righteousness
of God. And so we go about trying to
establish our own righteousness. Hearken unto me. The Lord's speaking
right now. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
righteousness of God. Perfectly, completely satisfying
God's law. living a life pleasing to the
Father. You and I have never, ever been
able to satisfy one of God's laws one time. Never. The Lord Jesus Christ, that's
all he did. In thought, in word, in deed, in attitude, everything
he did was in perfect obedience to the law of God. I bring my
righteousness near. It shall not be far off. It's
not far off. And my salvation shall not tarry. I will place salvation in Zion. I will place my salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. I'm going to do it all for Israel,
because that's where my glory is. My glory is in my salvation. Now, the Lord, look at verse
10. Verse 9, Remember the former
things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am
God, there's none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. I'm the Lord. The Lord is comparing himself
to all the gods of man-made religion. And so, to see the glory of Christ
in Zion, in Israel, to see him in my life, he's set himself
in contrast to the gods of this world. And that begins in verse 1. So
if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to verse 1. Bel. You remember a king of Babylon
by the name of Bel Shazar? That's where he got his name
from. And Bel was a Babylonian god. A false god. An idol. and the king of Babylon named
himself after his own God. Nebo, you remember a king in
Babylon by the name of Nebuchadnezzar? Nebo being his prophet, So the
Lord now is exposing these two Babylonian gods, the one who
they call Lord, Baal, and the one who they call the prophet
of the Lord, Nebo, and he's exposing these false gods of Babylon. Belboweth down, Nebo stoopeth. Their idols were upon the beast
and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy laden. They are a burden to the weary
beast. They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden. They could not deliver the burden. That's the definition of all
the false gods of man-made religion. They say peace, peace, but there
is no peace. They promise salvation, but they
cannot deliver. They say that you can be saved if you will
do this. Fill in the blank. Just fill
in the blank. Every religion's got its own
list of do's and don'ts, doesn't it? But the God himself is not able
to save by himself unless you do your part. The God of man-made
religion says, well, you know, if you'll make this decision,
if you'll pray this prayer, and really mean it, if you'll make
a commitment, If you'll stop doing this and start doing that,
or if you'll achieve a certain level of knowledge, then God
will have mercy upon you. Baal and Nebo. Now if you trace these Babylonian
gods from Babel in Genesis chapter 11, you remember what happened
in Babel? The people gather together and
the scripture says they came together in order to make a name
for themselves. That's why they came together,
to make a name for themselves. You look at every religion of
the world, they cannot deliver the burden of sin that man bears. They can't take it away. They
give man something to do so that he can make a name for himself.
And they give man a false peace and a false hope in a false God. Now the Lord's compared himself
to these Babylonian gods. And you remember they built a
city in Babel. And the scripture says they had
brick for stone and slime for mortar. Now that's the same slime
that Noah used on the ark that he built. He pitched the ark
from within and from without and made it waterproof, didn't
he? And that word pitch or slime translated means atonement. It's
a picture of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. And what'd they do in Babel?
They built a city, and they built a tower to try to get up to God,
and they made it not out of stone, but they made it out of bricks
that they had fired with their own hands. And they put these
bricks together with the atonement. In other words, they're trying
to hold their works together with the atoning work of Christ. It's Jesus plus. It's Bell and
Nebo. That God cannot deliver. Call him what you want. He cannot
deliver. And what happened at Babel? Confusion
of speech. And you listen to the religions
of the world, and it's just confusion of speech, isn't it? They say,
Every religion would say God is all-powerful. He's all-powerful. He's omnipotent. He's God. Until He comes up against the
free will of man. And now He's the impotent. He
can't do anything unless you let Him. What kind of power is
that? They say God loves everybody.
But the same person who says God loves everybody would say
that most of the people that God loves he's going to send
to hell. What kind of love is that? You see, you can't make sense
of it. It's confusion of speech. They say you're not under the
law, you're under grace, but then they put you back under
the law. As either a cause of your salvation or at least an
evidence of your salvation, you've got to measure yourself by the
law. You can't make sense of Bel and Nebo. It's nonsense. And so the Lord is comparing
Himself to these false gods and He's saying, He said, I'm not
like that. That God, here's the summary,
here's the summary of all the false religions of the world.
And if you go to Revelation chapter 16, Mystery Babylon, the great harlot,
the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. The
Lord identifies all the religions of this world as Babylon. And he calls it Mystery Babylon,
why? Because the people who are worshiping
Baal and Nebo don't know it. They think they're worshiping
God. But they're worshiping a God that can not deliver the burden. He can't do it. He can't take
it away. And they themselves, you see
that in verse 2? They themselves have gone into
captivity. Now here's the truth. You and
I live in Babylon. We live in Babylon. How long were the children of
Israel in Babylon? Seventy years. What's a man's life? Three score
and ten. The Lord has put us in Babylon
to live among a bunch of babbling idiots who are saying one thing and
then denying it was something else. They've got confusion of
speech. They're building their tower
out of man-made bricks, and they're putting them together with the
atonement, and it's all going to fall down. It's all going
to fall down. Call it, call the god whatever
you want to call him, it's Baal and Nebo. It's just Babylonian
gibberish. The big thing about it is they could not deliver the burden. The burden. Do you have a burden? I mean a real burden. A burden
that neither time nor money can solve. A burden that you've got
to get delivered from. The Lord said, all ye that labor
and are heavy burdened, come unto me. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. Learn of me, I'm meek and lowly
in heart, and I'll give you rest for your soul. I'm able to take
that burden away. Now when our Lord was speaking
to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, He said to them, He said,
don't listen to them, or don't be like them, don't follow
their example. They are blind guides leading
the blind, they're all gonna fall in the ditch. They say,
but they do not do. And then he went on to say, for
they bind heavy burdens, grievous to be born, and lay them on men's
shoulders, but they themselves will not lift one finger to move it. But all their works
they do for to be seen of men. That's what religion is. Religion
is just an attempt to be seen of men. All the works of religion,
they do in order to be seen of men. They do in order to obligate
God to save. Now the Lord, the Lord begins
this chapter by identifying Baal and Nebo, Babylonian gods, is
all the religions of the world. And he says, they can't deliver
your burden. They can't take away your sin.
They need your help. Verse three, hearken unto me,
O house of Jacob. Listen to me, don't listen to
them. and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are
born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb. I
made you. I fashioned you in the womb of
your mother. I brought you into this world.
I gave you physical life. I breathed breath into you. I have kept you and sustained
you through everything in your life. And we're only able to
see just a small portion of what God's done, aren't we? We see the big events, don't
we? And the Lord said, I've borne you, I've carried you. I've done
everything for you. I've brought you to where you
are. And not only have I done it physically,
but I've done it spiritually. I created you in the womb of
the Gospel. I birthed you in the covenant
of grace. I gave you faith. I caused you
to breathe. I gave you eyes to see. And I'm
going to keep you from falling. I'm not like Baal and Nebo. I'm
not dependent upon you to help me out. I'm going to do it all
by myself. Hearken unto me, you sons of
Jacob and you house of Israel. And even to your old age, even
to your old age, oh, elder, brothers and sisters,
the body gets weaker, doesn't it? The suspicions of ourselves
get stronger, don't they? The older we get, the less confidence
we have in ourselves. And the weaker we become, and
the more dependent we are, and here's the promise of our God,
even to your old age, even when you have gray hair, even to your last breath, I'm
going to keep you. Even to your old age, I am he. And even to your whore hair. Now that's just an old English
word that means grace. A gray. Gray. Okay? So, ladies, color your hair all
you want, but, you know, it's gray, we know. We know. I like colored hair, by the way. I will carry you. I will carry
you. I'm not like Bell and Nebo. I'm
going to do all the carrying. They can't take your burden away.
They can't deliver you of your sin. But I can. I'm going to carry you. Why? Because I have made you. Notice
how many times the word I is in this verse. I made you. Now that word made, you could
look it up. It's the word work. The work
is finished from the foundation of the world. Enter into His
rest, Hebrews chapter 4. I have finished the work. The work of redemption is accomplished. I'm not like Bell. I'm not like
Nebo. I'm not like those Babylonian
gods trying to put your bricks together with the atonement.
I'm going to do it all. I'm the rock. I'm the atonement. I'm your salvation. I'm your
glory. And I will bear I will bear. They can't bear it, but I can. I'm going to fulfill all righteousness.
I'm going to silence the threatening cries of the law. I'm going to redeem you. I'm
going to purchase you to myself. I'm going to do everything that
God requires from you all by myself. I'm not like Bell. I'm not like Nebo. I am the Lord. I've promised it. I'm going to
perform it. I've done it all. That's why
it's good news. And men hate it. Why do they
hate it? Because it strips them of their righteousness. It takes them off the throne
of God. You see, men love hearing that
there's a God who's all-powerful until He comes up against your
free will. Oh, so my will can resist. I can
resist God. And I'll let God save me when
I'm ready to be saved. Oh, you stout-hearted. You're
far from righteousness. You're contending with your maker. How does the potter not have
right over the clay to do with it whatsoever he wills? I made you, I will bear you. I'm going to bear all your sins
in my body upon that tree. I'm going to cover them with
my blood. I'm going to put them away. And I'm going to bear you
to glory. When I return unto my Father,
I'm going to take with me all the names of those for whom I
lived and died. All those who were chosen by
my Father in the covenant of grace. And I'm going to represent
them before. I'm going to bear them. I made
them. I'm not like, what was Abel and
Nebo? Could not bear the burden. I'm
gonna bear it. I'm gonna carry you, I'm gonna
make you, and I will carry. I'm gonna carry you all the way
to glory. I'm gonna carry you. Now that
word carry is a heavy load. A load that you can't bear. That's
your sin problem, isn't it? It doesn't matter how difficult
the trials in this life are. We always figure out a way through
it, don't we? We just get to the task and solve
the problem. We've got a problem we can't
solve. can't solve it he said I made
you I'm gonna bear your sin I'm gonna carry you look what he
says and I will deliver you I will deliver you that word is escape
you that have escaped from the nations I delivered you there
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to all
men but God is faithful God is faithful. He will not suffer
you to be tempted above that which you are able. He's not
going to put a burden on you that you cannot bear apart from
His grace. I'm going to put the burden of
sin on you, you're not going to be able to bear it. But in your inability
to bear it, you're going to turn to me. And I'm going to, with that temptation,
provide a way to escape. Christ is the way of escape.
He is the glory of Israel. If we've seen the glory of God,
we've seen the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
accomplished, redemptive work of Christ on Calvary's cross. We've cast all our care upon
Him, believing that He cares for us. We've got no place else
to go. Look what He says. Verse five,
to whom will you liken me? Oh, our God is way too small,
isn't he? He's way too small. I'm talking
about the God that we perceive to exist. He's just way too small. He's a whole lot bigger than
we think he is. Our sin's a whole lot greater than we think it
is. His love for us is a whole lot greater than we think it
is. And He's a whole lot bigger than we think He is. To whom will you liken me and
make me equal and compare me that we may be like? They lavish
gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire
a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god. And they fall down, yea,
they worship. They're worshiping a god that
they fashioned with their own hands. They bear him upon the
shoulder, they carry him, they set him in his place. And he
standeth. And from his place shall he not
remove. He doesn't have the strength
to move from the place where you set him. Yea, one will cry unto him, yet
can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble." Bell and
Nebo can't save you. They can't save you. Why? For this simple reason. They
don't exist. They're just a figment of men's
imagination. They're a god who depends upon
you to help him out. And the Lord says, who's like
me? I'm not like that. Remember this and show yourselves
men, bring it again to mind, oh ye transgressors. There's
my problem. I've transgressed the law of
God. Matter of fact, everything about
me transgresses the law of God. I've never been able to keep
the law of God. I'm a transgressor. I need a righteousness before
God that I don't have. Remember the former things of
old. Look back to Calvary's cross and then look back further than
that. Look back to all the promises that God made to Israel in the
Old Testament. And then look back further than
that. Look back to the promise that God made to God in the covenant
of grace before time ever began. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there's
none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning. I set everything in order before
it started. Everything is right exactly where
God meant it to be. declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure." Everything is done according
to the pleasure of our God. Can you rest there? Can you rest
Is your physical life there? And more importantly, can you
rest your soul there? Can you put your hope in Christ? Calling a ravenous bird. Now you remember Cyrus? Cyrus
is the one who's gonna come and kill Belshazzar and be used of
God to bring the children of Israel back to Jerusalem. But Cyrus is a picture of Christ.
You remember what Cyrus' name means? The possessor of the furnace.
And here he's called a ravenous bird. He's going to eat up all
the fiery wrath of God's judgment. He's going to consume all the
sins of God's people. He's going to drink dry the bitter
dregs of God's holy wrath on Calvary's cross. He's called
a ravenous bird. And He's going to quench the
fiery darts of the devil. and deliver God's people. He's
going to call a ravenous bird from the east, the man, the man
that executeth my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken
it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will do
it. Oh, I'm so glad. Aren't you? Hearken unto me, O you Adam."
You say, well, how do I know if I'm a part of Israel? God has caused me to hearken
unto Him. This is my hope. I believe it. Every word of it. I believe Christ. I've got no
place else to go. I didn't choose Christ. God put me in a place where I
had no place else. I tried Baal. I tried Nebo. But I never found any comfort
in a salvation that depended on something from me because
knowing myself, I never felt like I did enough. Now I know
that I've got a God who did it all by himself. There is none
like unto me. I've brought a ravenous bird
from the east, the man, the man, Christ Jesus. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness.
Say not in your heart, what can I do to bring Christ down from
above? Say not in your heart, perish
the thought, don't even think about, what can I do to make
what Christ did work for me? Say not in your heart, what can
I do to bring Christ up from above? What can I do to make
his resurrection effectual for me? Don't say it, don't think
it. For the word is nigh unto thee. Turn with me to that passage
of scripture, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee. It's near,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith
which we preach. Now, the word of faith that's
in your heart and in your mind is that when you hear the gospel,
you say, Amen. Amen. Yes, that's that's my hope,
I believe. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
There's no difference. Same gospel for every one of
us. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the religious
and the unreligious, the irreligious. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Oh Lord, I can't do
anything but just call on you. Just call on you. Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of his remnant? There is no other God. Bell's
not like that. Nebo's not like that. But our
God is God. And He saves in the manner in
which He saves, through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Show me, Lord, Thy glory. Our Heavenly Father, Oh, how
hopeful we are that you have given us some glimpse of thy
glory and how we pray that you would continue to open the windows
of heaven, shine the light of the gospel in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope of glory. For it's in his
name we pray. Amen. Brother Tom. 186. Let's stand together. Number
186. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. creation by water and the worm. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one for all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. and to one hope she presses with
every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forever. her more, till with the vision
glorious her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church
victorious shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath
union with God the three in one, And mystic sweet communion with
those whose rest is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Thank you.